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It might be a bit risky, but to throw away the keys of your house will feel pretty good to you. Smart locks are very much convenient, but they can be hacked, and their privacy can be violated. The Google Home application now has support for smart locks Nest and Yale. You can easily add these smart locks to your Google-powered smart home setup. You can control them from wherever desired. There is no doubt that home automation is very convenient, but are smart locks really that reliable?

Using smart locks on the smart doorbell cameras will no doubt unlock your front door automatically on your arrival. Smart locks will allow you to check if you left the door unlocked or lock it again if you already did. Smart locks let you check who rang your doorbell a while ago. There are a lot of benefits of using Smart Locks, but the biggest drawback is that they can be hacked, which can lead to different unwanted consequences.

Advantages of Smart Locks

Smart locks let you control and automate your smart appliances. If you have an application related to it, you can use it on your device for controlling lights, heating appliances, playing music, and more. As the devices are controlled by the applications, you can automate and then trigger them just by talking to your Google Home, HomePod, or Alexa smart speakers.

Let us take the primary case of bedtime. You can quickly turn off all your lights, switch on the lamp bedside, turn down the heating, and lock the doors. You can also trigger the scenes from a reasonable distance as your smart devices will be connected to the net, which would let you receive all the alerts from the sensors that are on your smart doorbell or you can also remote-view the door-cam on your handset and can even have a conversation with the visitor. In your absence, you can also unlock the door for the delivery guy with the help of a smart lock to let him drop your parcel in your hallway, or you can also grant temporary access to your friend, repair person, or cleaner.

Drawbacks of Using Smart Locks

We have already discussed plenty of weird possibilities. One of the significant risks is that your devices will be connected to the internet. The devices that are certified to get used with Apple’s HomeKit are generally protected; however, the commercial HomeKit product will have to get the Authentication Coprocessor of Apple. But there are a lot of other cameras and switches which connect straightforwardly with the Wi-Fi network. These connections can easily be interrupted by anyone who has access to your Wi-Fi password. In that case, your security cameras might actually broadcast to the web.

The smart locks not only should have capabilities to resist any form of physical attack, but they also have to resist against hacking attempts. The smart lock breakage is not like the normal ones where the intruder stands on to the porch and then does the task of opening the lock. But still, the smart lock hacks are unlikely.

The smart locks work via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so they need power for operating. So, you need to be assured that your lock is adequately charged to let it work.

Unprecedented Consequences

Even if you do not have to worry a lot about the smart lock hackers, you still need to take a closer look at the lock vendor. Recently, the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) found that the Android app named Ring doorbell was fully packed with various third-party trackers and the trackers were continuously sending the confidential details like your private IP addresses, names, persistent identifiers, sensor data, and the mobile network carriers, etc. to the marketing and analytics companies.

Final Verdict

So before choosing a lock vendor, make sure that you have appropriate information regarding it as the cameras and locks play a significant role in any home security setup, so you must clarify all the details regarding the lock vendor before you opt for its service.

Source url:- https://williamsblogpoint.wordpress.com/2020/09/11/the-perils-of-smart-locks/

Ava Williams is a trained office.com/setup expert who works with the development team with feedback from customers to make it to expectations. He lives in New York and In addition to his work, he also writes for his personal blog.

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