Joel Reidenberg was quoted in a Realtor.com article about privacy issues surrounding Amazon Key, a new package delivery program that will allow delivery people to drop off packages inside homes.
Wouldn’t it be great to never have to call in sick to work again to ensure your package is safely delivered to your home? How about the joy of coming home to new groceries waiting for you in your fridge? And imagine never having to worry that your packages will be stolen off your porch during the holiday season.
New services such as Amazon Key promise to make those delivery dreams come true.
Amazon Key, announced this week, will allow customers to receive deliveries inside their homes while they’re out. The service involves smart locks to grant temporary access to verified couriers and the Amazon Cloud Cam, to record those deliveries for customers, who can watch them in real time.
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The Amazon Cloud Cam will likely be positioned over the doorway. But if someone steps out of the narrow frame of the camera, then homeowners will have no idea what the person is doing in the home.
However, broadening the scope of the camera presents its own problems, says Joel Reidenberg, a cybersecurity and law professor at Fordham University in New York City. That’s because these devices are recording everything they see, and those feeds are stored in the cloud.
“The alternative is you put surveillance throughout the home. But now you’ve created a ‘1984’ environment,” he warns, referring to George Orwell’s book about the watchful eye of big government. “Those video images will be accessible to third parties, law enforcement, and Russian hackers.”\