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Welcome to Ask Clark, a column designed to answer your financial questions, by money expert Clark Howard.
Alex from Colorado: “We recently purchased a ‘smart’ garage door opener, where we can open and close our garage door remotely with our cell phone. There’s even an option to link it to our Amazon account, where delivery drivers will place packages inside the garage. Is this safe in general? It seems even if we don’t link our Amazon account, we could be opening our house to possible theft.”
Clark says: There are all kinds of devices you can use to sync with your garage door to let delivery persons leave packages inside, but how much access you give is the key.
He acknowledges the potential problem of a “smart” garage door getting hacked but says the more likely problem lies in homeowners’ habits.
“Most people who enter and leave their house every day through the garage never lock the door from the garage to the house itself,” Clark says. “Once someone’s in the garage, they have access to the house.”
So Clark says while it’s OK to give Amazon delivery people access to your garage, make sure that’s all you give them.
“In my opinion, if you’re going to give people access to the smart garage door, then it’s also smart that you go that extra step and always lock the door into the house itself,” he adds.
To hear Clark’s full take on this question, listen to the segment:
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This post was last modified on September 22, 2021 8:00 am
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