Amazon customers are receiving photos of their front door in flawed security effort

To the surprise of its customers, Amazon users have increasingly been receiving photographs of their own door after a delivery has been made. It turns out that this is one of the company’s new security methods that it has quietly been trialling for the past few months in an attempt to quell the theft of parcels while in transit.

The photographs are included within the notice of the successful delivery and show exactly where the parcel has been left in an unobscured manner. Dubbed “Amazon Logistics Photo On Delivery,” the method is an attempt to deliver indisputable proof that the item has been delivered when the resident is not at home to collect the parcel.

A second later, phone notification from @amazon saying my package was delivered and there's a picture available for viewing lol pic.twitter.com/NOugVn7XPV

— Heather (@Heather_PLS) September 7, 2017

Amazon noted that Photo On Delivery has been trialled for quite some time, with Twitter user Heather_PLS posting her account last September. “It shows customers that their package was safely delivered and where, and it's one of many delivery innovations we're working on to improve convenience for customers,” explains Amazon spokesperson Kristen Kish.

Photo On Delivery started out as a limited trial in carefully selected locations, such as San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Oregon, Indianapolis and North Virginia, however it has since been confirmed that the system has expanded to other territories including South Wales, United Kingdom.

This practice seems inherently flawed in comparison to its more solid effort of acquiring video doorbell firm Ring Inc. While it confirms that a courier has at least been in the vicinity instead of skipping out on attempting to deliver the parcel, there’s no security measure in place to prevent the courier taking the item once the picture has been snapped, or a passer-by before the resident returns. Still, the company is pushing forward with its efforts to quell theft where possible.

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KitGuru Says: Perhaps I’m just being cynical, however in comparison to Amazon’s locker effort, delivery drop-off points and even simply leaving it at a neighbour's, this is still open to a lot of manipulation. Would Amazon snapping a picture of your front door satisfy your security needs?

 

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