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Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Tenants at a property in New York City just struck a deal in what is both a wildly reasonable ask but also a crucial precedent at a time of increasing surveillance—their landlord has to give them physical keys to their building.
Five tenants in Hell’s Kitchen sued their landlord in March after the owners installed a Latch smart lock on the building last year. It is unlocked with a smartphone, and reportedly granted tenants access to the lobby, elevator, and mail room. But the group that sued their landlords saw this keyless entry as harassment, an invasion of privacy, and simply inconvenient.
“We are relieved that something as simple as entering our home is not controlled by an internet surveillance system and that because we will now have a mechanical key they will not be tracking our friends and our family,” 67-year-old tenant Charlotte Pfahl, who has lived in the building for 45 years, told the New York Post.
Source: After Smart Lock Allegedly Traps Senior in Apartment, Tenants Sue for Physical Keys and Win
(Score: 2, Insightful) by crunchy_one on Thursday May 09 2019, @04:19PM (1 child)
Consider what happens when the power goes out, or phone service is interrupted.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Thursday May 09 2019, @04:58PM
Or, what happens if you have a billing dispute with the lock company... because cloud also means extracting "rent" on a service.
In addition to the power or phone service going down, what happens if the internet service is out?
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P