Probably, but I wouldn't. The idea of giving a company full access to your locks is a bit wtf in my books.
My intuition is that granting consent for some action to one group of strangers does not grant consent to a different group of strangers, but I am not a lawyer.
Another, perhaps better example: a landlord typically has a set of keys and the right to access a tenant's apartment. In a commercial building, those keys could be held by any number of "strangers" on the maintenance staff. The police still need a warrant, they can't just ask the landlord for a set of keys. That's really not any different from having the "keys" held by Amazon staff members.
There are lots of instances where a person's expectation of privacy is low with respect to specific people/businesses but high with respect to the government, and that doesn't weaken their 4th amendment protections.
A point to bring up with regards to landlords is that both State law and contract law (your lease) enable them to enter the dwelling under very special circumstances, usually such as an immediate threat to life. They may also enter to do various tasks such as inspections but laws usually mandate notice that must be given and how. Here in Texas, it's a minimum of 24 hours written notice for the latter.
However, IIRC, if the delivery people (or landlord, in your second example) choose to report to law enforcement anything criminal that they see in your home _of their own free will_ and without any prior arrangement with police, that evidence would be admissible and could be used to obtain a warrant.
It's not that much different from past cases where Best Buy technicians found illegal material on computers brought in to them for servicing and reported it to police and resulted in successful prosecutions.
Those technicians were hired and trained by the FBI to seek out this information. There are ongoing lawsuits claiming this was illegal.
Do you think the government is going to pass up the opportunity to do the same with Amazon employees?
That is, assuming Amazon hasn't already approached the government to offer it as a service.
There are plenty of people that grant access to their homes to service providers like cleaning services, dog walkers, etc...
Legally, I don't think there's much new here.
I wonder if you could outfit the smart lock on a shed or secure package box and let them deliver to that?
It would also provide some security by obscurity for any packages we get; according to UPS, right now I've got three packages totaling about $500 of equipment sitting on my front porch in plain view to anyone going past the house. Thankfully the house sits nearly half an acre off the main road, with no sidewalk and in a semi-rural area. Still, Murphy's law dictates that today will be the first time I have a package stolen. I'll find out when I get home in a few hours, I guess.
(My regular UPS guy normally doesn't deliver to me until after 6pm, he knows my schedule and it lines up well with his driving route most of the time. I'm guessing this is a new driver, or else a really light day for my regular guy.)
My apartment and several in the area, have a concierge, and they’ll act as a “porch” and even deliver it to your door later in the day
Some apartments have mail rooms, some with automated entry based on if you have a package or not
It’s largely a solved problem
dairy man
mailman
seltzer water man
whomever else delivered stuff man
but, they also probably had someone at home all day.
I also think having a general unlocked mail or package slot is problematic these days, as bad actors could use that to insert all kinds of nefarious and damaging items into your home.
EDIT: @vidarh: I was unaware. Thank you! Going to look for one that is weatherproof and I can paint Amazon Locker yellow.
It’ll even be a convenient place to put letters and other small deliveries.
I guess since most mailmen are men and they will use it the most often, we can call it a malebox.
Some other anecdotes:
When my townhome was broken into, I learned that windows are way less secure than smart locks. If someone wants in your home, they're going to get in.
When my house caught on fire, I would have loved to have been able to let the first-responder in remotely as we were an hour away, the fire company was 20 mins, and seconds count.
1) good deadbolt mounted into thick wood with a big strike plate and a sheet of sheet metal attached to the entire length of the stud with 3” screws, so you can’t just kick in the door. They sell kits like this oh amazon for usually sub100$.
2) good deadbolt.
3) steel door, because a 15lb mallet will knock through pretty much anything else and, if you have a door not visible to neighbors (like a backyard doors) no one will even notice.
4) an alarm system, because if no one is coming, steps 1-3 are irrelevant. Time defeats all security measures.
5) thorny bushes under all windows, motion-sensing lights on the entire perimeter. This keeps no one out, but if your house looks like a pain in the ass to get into, someone else’s will get hit. Outrun your neighbor, not the lion.
6) and if you’ve got the cash to spend, hurricane-proof glass and window stops will make it very unlikely anyone is getting in through a window either.
7) and that’s all still just to make you less attractive than a neighbor, ‘cause if I can get into your yard, cutting away some siding with metal snips and knocking a hole in your sheetrock is trivial. Walls are more psychological than structural in most modern home construction.
Even that’s overkill. Even if someone sheathed their exterior walls in plywood, structural sheathing runs 5/16 - 1/2”, and seams are between studs. It’s for resisting shear stresses on the house and/or insulation. In terms of orthogonal force, it’s a far cry from requiring a saw to get in.
If they're going to get in that way, they're gunna work for it.
/at that point it would be easier for them to go thru the doors or windows (not even sure where you'd get hurricane glass in Arizona).
It’s definitely a different perspective. He’s oriented to getting past security; normal thieves are risk-minimizing opportunists, so the approach isn’t “how do I get past security”, it’s “how do I get past the minimum security I can expect, and identify those targets that will have that minimum.”
Still, super interesting.
On the other hand, targeted attacks are not just for industrial espionage; for example, a friend of mine caught his landlady stealing from him. Family members and friends are also not that uncommon either, unfortunately.
I’ve never seen it written up anywhere, though I’m sure someone has to have spilled beans on this topic at some point.
If you have specific security concerns relevant to your personal situation (eg, I live In an apartment with a balcony...) feel free to leave an email address or some other contact info and I’ll happily give you some quick tips. Most residences, unless you’re a high value target, need very similar security.
Though I did find a 16" version for $80.00 - I'm thinking a tool like this might come in handy for off-roading use.
Amazon could certainly be coerced into unlocking the door, but the FBI could also just use their boots to coerce the door into unlocking on its own.
Breaking through a door or windows requires a certain amount of risk and commitment. If a malicious hacker gets remote access to a smart lock the risk is effectively zero.
Especially if said malicious actor can also control the camera that is meant to record anyone entering the home.
Extra points for no curtains/blinds.
This is an extremely worrisome statement. Is there any precedent for this type of coercion from the FBI to businesses who have access to a home? My justice-sense is tingling to think that the FBI could get into my home by coercing any party that I give access (hypothetical maids, pool guy, cat sitter, etc)
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/11/fbi_agents_po...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intellig...
And, at the same time, package delivery is a PITA for many. For me, it's simple. They leave packages by the door and I've never had an issue but that's not true everywhere. I agree that some sort of lock box outside is probably preferable most of the time but this option doesn't seem out of the bounds of common sense.
Now if only they could pick up and return my laundry too (like some other companies offer)
Or deliver fresh food (like Ocado)
Since they have a key, maybe they could go ahead and get started cooking it for us too.
I'd like to see how Amazon manages the access. Can access be revoked manually? Can you generate your own access permissions to give to a friend? Is this access code a one-time code?
What if Amazon accept full liability for use of the lock though their system?
E.g. a courier taps to unlock the door, within 30 seconds, they must tap to lock the door or the local police will be called.
Many police forces charge each time they respond to a false alarm, and the cost generally goes up each time it happens. On top of that, an automated alarm signal (with no human confirmation) is pretty much considered the lowest priority call, and they may not even attend at all.
This is why most businesses have a private security company to respond to their alarms. They're generally significantly faster (and often have a guaranteed response time), and if a security guard shows up, sees a crime in progress and calls police, it's actually a very high priority call and will get immediate police response.