As if letting digital giants like Google and Facebook into almost every aspect of your life wasn’t enough, now Amazon is offering to physically come into your house.
The new Amazon Key service, currently being trialled in 37 US cities, lets homeowners give the shopping empire’s couriers permission to open their front door and leave their delivery inside.
To access the service, available only to Amazon Prime customers, users will need to purchase a smart lock and cloud-enabled camera priced at $249.99 (£188). When the Amazon courier unlocks the door, the camera will automatically switch on to record the delivery, which the company says ensures customer safety and security.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
The service is “potentially a great option for consumers worried about package thieves, or concerned their box might sit outside on a rainy day,” says USA Today.
There’s certainly a demand for a more customer-friendly delivery system: in a survey of Britons’ top “first world problems” earlier this month, the number one pet hate was having to stay at home to wait for packages.
Indeed, some Amazon customers applauded the trial as an improvement on current delivery practices:
Nonetheless, the concept left many people uneasy. On Twitter, users were quick to point out that missing a delivery was a minor inconvenience compared to the anxieties that would come with allowing strangers into your empty house.
First and foremost, there were the obvious security concerns:
But as well as urgent matter of personal safety, one Twitter user identified a more mundane anxiety that would come with using Amazon Key:
