Amazon wants the keys to your house.

Oh, and the retail giant also wants to install a camera at your front door to track people coming in and out.

Seriously.

‘Amazon Key’ is a security camera and locking system that lets you get deliveries inside your home when you’re not there.

Here’s how it works:

When the Amazon delivery driver arrives at your front door, he (or she) scans your package. If the package is approved, the door unlocks, and the camera starts recording. Now here’s the cool part: you can watch the delivery driver from your phone … and apparently even talk to them:

“Put the ice-cream in the fridge please cobber.”

After the driver has dropped off the package, the door automatically locks behind him. (And if you’re busy working you’ll get an email with a recorded video of the drop-off.)

Amazon Key costs $249 and is currently available in 37 cities across the US — but if it’s successful you can be sure it’ll be quickly rolled out here in Australia.

Righty-o. So what does this all mean?

First point: this is just another reason that Amazon is fast becoming the ‘everything store’.

In the coming months Amazon Home Services is rolling out 1,200 different services — from cleaners to dog walkers — who will all sync into the Amazon Key system.

The bottom line for Aussie businesses is brutal: if you don’t have the chops to compete globally, then the best companies in the world will eventually come Down Under and cut your lunch (and most likely deliver it by drone).

Second point: is this ‘1984’?

Are consumers seriously going to allow a conglomerate to set up a camera in the privacy of their homes?

Sure!

In fact, Amazon Key perfectly complements Amazon Alexa, the voice-activated speaker that is constantly listening in to your conversations (and awaiting your Amazon orders), and the cute-looking Alexa Alarm Clock, which has an in-built camera and microphone (in your bedroom!).

Yeah, but what about letting strangers into your home?

Well, think about the intricate security system most of us have now: you keep a spare key under the doormat so that Sally (surname unknown) — the cleaner you met for 10 minutes as you showed her through your pigsty of a home — can get in. Good old Sally wouldn’t use your toothbrush to clean the toilets, right?

… Hang on, give me that security camera!

Tread Your Own Path!