Is it safe though?

Have you seen blue Amazon stickers around your street? If yes, welcome to the future. These stickers are signs that a building or a house has Amazon’s ‘Key for Business.’ In an exclusive interview with the Associated Press, Amazon recently promoted its new feature.

Here’s how it works and how you can have it in your home.

Amazon’s ‘Key for Business’ feature

Amazon has finally patched a way for delivery guys to enter your building, in case you’re not home. Using the ‘Key for Business’ feature, deliveries can now be sent directly to your apartment buildings or at home. This means, no more packages outside homes or given to unknown personnel in your building.

Amazon also aims to lessen the chances of missing packages when delivered. So far, the company said they’re promoting each household in America to try the key feature.

All houses that have this technology have clues for riders. For example, one of the streets in New York has blue Amazon smiley stickers in three of 11 buildings. This means the building is currently implementing the ‘Key for Business’ feature.

As shared by one of the feature’s clients, a Chicago-man named Kenton Girard, the new technology feature decreases the chances of package theft around his building. He said that before getting Amazon’s feature, he remembered that package theft was so prevalent in their areas. Thus, forcing him to think of building a secured package drop outside the building.

Until he discovered Amazon’s new product. Other than security, there are other perks of applying for ‘Key for Business’ feature.

Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at marketing company Publicis Communications, noted that he was given a $100 Amazon gift card for allowing the company to install their technology.

“They give it away for free because it benefits Amazon more than us,” he said.

How it benefits Amazon more than house owners

It is true that Amazon benefits more with the ‘Key for Busines feature.’

Philip T. Evers, a logistics professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, shared that Amazon’s new feature allows them to have exclusive customers in a building. As an example, according to him, if a building approves to have Amazon’s key; the landlord would probably not entertain other companies with a similar feature anymore.

Therefore, eliminating Amazon’s competitors in the long run.

He also believed that delivery workers will have a quicker time to deliver packages with the new feature. Thus, saving money for Amazon in the logistics area.

Is it safe though?

Despite the security of packages, one thing that worries most about the Key for Business feature is its security from hackers.

Ashkan Soltani, a privacy researcher who was a senior tech advisor to former President Barack Obama, warns that hackers could easily control Amazon’s system.

“You’re essentially introducing a foreign internet-connected device into an otherwise internal network,” said Soltani.

Unfortunately, Amazon did not respond to the possible hacking scenarios.