KeyMe – Copy keys and solve lockouts

I'd be astonished if that hardware store didn't have surveillance video of you.

Incidentally, the trick where you test someone's level of guilt by massively overcharging them, then seeing if they pay without a peep, is straight out of G.K. Chesterton's The Blue Cross:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/204/204-h/204-h.htm

I'm thrilled to learn that this hundred-year-old mystery-story trope also works in real life!

It sounds like you were talking with someone who had a clue and could quickly, but with additional effort, reproduce a key via a duplicator like this: http://www.lockpicks.com/w333l-sidewinderkeyduplicator.aspx which is fine, but dramatically less convenient than an automated code cutter.

Homeowners obviously have more choice in the locks they use, though.

It's always seemed like a safety hazard to me with interior-locking doors. When I stayed with a friend in Paris, I was locked inside their flat when they left early for work.

Here is an alternate solution: http://imgur.com/inJp7zB

Yes, picking a lock is much quieter but the reality is most break-ins emphasize the word "break".

One reason is the way we build houses. It's easy to break into our houses through their windows or from their back door, so it makes little sense to secure their front doors with fancy locks. Instead, we rely on alarms, guard dogs, our neighbors, or guns. Compare our exposed apartments here to those in, say, Paris, which have barred windows, or to houses in the middle east, which are walled off from the street.

Here is some sales data from KeysDuplicated.com that you might find interesting (we're in the same business as keyme, though we mostly operate in the background, as a service provider to other businesses): about 45% of our US orders are standard Schlage keys, which are relatively easy to pick. About 25% of our US orders are Kwikset keys, which are absolutely trivial to pick. About 90% of the requests we receive from the Middle East are mind-bogglingly complex and would take hours to pick. Our French orders are somewhere in the middle.

Anyway, to answer a question that might have been lurking in your comment: those dimple keys aren't any more difficult to duplicate by photo than other keys. The image analysis is similar, and cutting them on our machines is straightforward. They're just hard to pick. And in case you were going to ask, we don't copy them at KeysDuplicated because that usually goes against the intent of the owner of the key.

I would say they're right to use relatively simple locks too. I've known several people who have had their homes broken into through kicking down doors or breaking windows. I've never even heard of a break-in by picking a lock. Why make everybody's locks much more expensive and harder to duplicate when lockpicking attacks are virtually nonexistent in the real world?

For convenience.

But, if the KeyMe user database is hacked along with personal information (billing address), then it becomes an issue.

Also, if you lose your phone and have emergency contact information (or can lookup the address associated with the phone number), then the thief also knows where to go.

In a couple of months I expect to see a HN story that is a google search of geotagged images of keys.

If having a physical key image stored elsewhere is a concern, then a keyless combo lock is probably the simpler alternative. You just remember your key code (hopefully) and don't need to carry anything besides your memory.

It's fairly trivial to look at common key blanks and visually identify the bitting (the "combination" of cut heights necessary to move the tumblers in the lock to the shear line). Sometimes the key has the bitting stamped right on it, numerically, too.