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Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

shloosl.com

41–50 of 84 posts

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#41

This is a pretty dangerous website, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. A unscrupulous car mechanic could save up a bunch of pictures of keys then sell them online anonymously to random people with fake credit cards. You wouldn't even need the peoples address just google map the neighborhood and look for their cars. It'd be a lot harder to sneak off from work to the hardware store then just tak…

You're over thinking this. Anyone with access to the car can open the glove box and look at the address on the registration. They could take a picture of the registration in no time.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#42

Forgive me if it's already being done, but I would love to see this capability at my local Home Depot or maybe in an app for a locksmith service. Store pics of my keys on a secure server at the provider, and if I ever lose a key, I hit a button and it's made for me. Could be a whole new revenue stream for them.

Do you trust the home depo staff with effectively permanent copies of your keys? Potentially just takes one bitter guy getting fired and deciding to make a little money to sink the whole ship, and the security of that end of the service isn't something that you or me's going to get to take a look at.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#43
post #36
post #6

Linking a picture of your house keys to your house address - what could possibly go wrong...

My immediate thoughts as well. Perhaps a different scenario. eg- Anyone can easily just take their friends key, snap a pic and have creep access to their house/car/locker/safe/etc. I am not sure if this kind of easy service is a good one to have around. Do not forget real-world security too!

The "Security" page addresses this very concern:

> Keyjacking is not allowed

> Worried someone's going surreptitiously copy your key with our service? Not to worry. We don't accept surreptitious or flyby pictures of keys. The key must be held in the person's hand, with their fingers visible. In any case, we require a credit card to ship the key, so in case of fraud, identity can be traced back. We respond swiftly to all inquiry from law enforcement agencies.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#46
This exact concept was done very well by a HNer two years ago:

http://dittokey.com/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2391571 - Show HN: DittoKey - Door keys copied from a photo app.

For my money it's a cool idea, but an overtechnical and imperfect solution to a rare and cheap problem. Keys are cut in minutes, cheaply, with professional guidance at tens of thousands of places around the world.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#47

Someone pitched me this idea a few months ago and I urged him to pursue it. I'm glad to see that it's being done by a super technical team who seem to know what they're doing. Here's why I'm so excited: 1. Shloosl solves a small but acute problem that nearly everyone in the country has. 2. It's a big FU to a fragmented and unevolving couple billion dollar industry. I don't want to find a locksmith or go to Home Depot…

> It's a big FU to a fragmented and unevolving couple billion dollar industry. I don't want to find a locksmith or go to Home Depot. I just want a duplicate key. And I don't care whether I pay $1.50 for it or $10 for it.

Meh, I like the idea but I'd much rather just stop by Home Depot and use the automated key duplication machine for $1.50. Last time I needed spare keys I spent $10 and got myself a handful.

I love the technology behind this (though not the name--I will never remember this name), and I bet they'll be successful, but I honestly don't see this denting the key duplication industry in the slightest.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#49

So i'm about to move out next week, I take a snapshot of the key (that's in my possession right now), pay with a prepaid Visa, and take next occupants stuff. Easily s/apartment/office. Flawless, proof that just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Exactly the same thing can be done by visiting a hardware store, or any other store that makes copies of keys.

Re: Duplicate your House Keys with your Phone

#50
post #43
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My immediate thoughts as well. Perhaps a different scenario. eg- Anyone can easily just take their friends key, snap a pic and have creep access to their house/car/locker/safe/etc. I am not sure if this kind of easy service is a good one to have around. Do not forget real-world security too!

The "Security" page addresses this very concern: > Keyjacking is not allowed > Worried someone's going surreptitiously copy your key with our service? Not to worry. We don't accept surreptitious or flyby pictures of keys. The key must be held in the person's hand, with their fingers visible. In any case, we require a credit card to ship the key, so in case of fraud, identity can be traced back. We respond swiftly to…

The victim wouldn't even know the key was cut by this service. So the friend/plumber/handyman or whoever could just take the picture, get the key cut and then raid the place without anyone knowing.

Seems legit.

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