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Prepare for People to Leave Packages Inside Your Home When You’re Not There

October 11, 2017

Privacy advocates, look away now. CBNC reports that Amazon is developing ways to leave parcels inside your home or car trunk while you aren’t around.

According to the report, the e-tailer is working on some kind of smart doorbell and lock system that could give delivery drivers one-time access to your home. It’s also said to be in talks a with a startup called Phrame, which is building hardware to securely store a key outside your vehicle so that authorized people can get into it.

As we’ve explained in the past, it’s no secret that Amazon wants to streamline shipping. This idea goes a step further than improving the logistics of getting packages to your door, though, and instead deals with the problem of your not being there to take delivery (an issue that only gets bigger the more things we buy online).

Clearly, the move could help solve some of the problems of unattended parcels left (and, ahem, “lost”) outside homes, as well as sparing neighbors from taking in your stray boxes until you make it home. But even if it’s convenient, it’s unclear whether customers trust Amazon—and, more important, its delivery staff—enough to use such a service.

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