Amazon’s exponential growth and immense power in retail have made it one of the most powerful companies in the world today. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, is far from finishing the expansion of his empire. Bezos has pushed out numerous hardware products in order to get closer to the consumer and secure his delivery process. Amazon’s latest hardware component is called Amazon Key. The service combines existing Amazon home surveillance cameras and smart door locks to allow couriers to deliver packages not only to your doorstep but into your home when you’re away.

  Amazon Key pairs Amazon’s Cloud Camera, a third party smart lock, and the Amazon Key app to give prime customers a way to allow Amazon couriers into their home. Beginning with the first component of Amazon Key, the Amazon Cloud Cam is a connected home surveillance camera. The surveillance camera works outside of the Amazon Key service to provide a live feed of inside the home to customer’s phones. While inside the key service the camera shows prime customers a view of their door when couriers deliver packages. The second component of Key is a smart lock for your front door. Smart locks allow homeowners to give remote access to friends and family via their phones when away. Amazon Key uses smart locks to let couriers into your home after authorizing that the Amazon package is at the correct house. After the smart lock unlocks your door it sends a notification via the Amazon Key app and records live video of your door as the delivery occurs. The logistics of all these separate pieces working together is promised to be included with your Amazon Prime subscription.

  This new service is available now for Prime customers and has left many questions involving privacy and the law. Having a connected home has already proved to be problematic for Amazon users. During November of last year, an Amazon Echo was thought to have recorded audio that would have benefited a murder case in a Benton County Circuit Court. Amazon ended the trial by arguing that the privacy of Echo users was too much at stake and the Echo home assistant was not included as evidence of the crime committed.

  When connected cameras and locks enter the home things could get more complicated. Would it be possible for someone to give access to a law enforcement agency or a criminal via Amazon Key and if so, who is at fault for giving access when a crime is committed after access? Could hackers obtain access to customer’s doors and surveillance cameras? Would warrants be necessary for law enforcement to gain access to a potential criminal’s door and surveillance camera? Amazon Key poses numerous problems that call for secure encryption from Amazon and government enforcement of citizen privacy. The future is now, and as home automation becomes more prevalent, companies and governments must insure security for customers.