Do Smart Doorbell Cameras Really Protect Your Home?

In recent years, smart doorbell cameras have become incredibly popular. More and more people are shopping online and having packages delivered, which has led to an explosion of porch piracy. To fight back, many homeowners are installing smart doorbell cameras to catch thieves in the act.

But do smart doorbell cameras really protect your home and keep your packages safe? With this post, we’ll take a look at some of the benefits and limitations of installing these cameras, along with other options that might be available to protect your deliveries.

Potential Benefits of Doorbell Cameras

It’s easy to imagine some of the ways using this technology could be helpful:

• Deter criminal activity. Generally speaking, criminals don’t want to be on camera. Therefore, if they are walking by and see from the sidewalk that you have a doorbell camera in place, they may just keep walking to look for another house.
• Check before letting people in. Many of the doorbell camera models on the market today are able to immediately stream video of your front porch directly to your smartphone when someone walks up. If you are home, that means you can confirm that it is someone you know and trust before going to unlock the door.
• See the porch when you aren’t home. If you are away from your house, you’ll still be able to see who is coming up to the door, assuming you are somewhere with cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity. Many models even let you talk to the person on the door through the camera, so you can ask them what they want and request that they leave if they aren’t welcome.

Possible Limitations

The points above highlight the best of what you can expect from a quality smart doorbell camera. But there are some limitations to the technology to keep in mind:

• Theft only takes a moment. In the case of porch piracy, a smart doorbell camera won’t provide you with much security, because a thief can be on and off of your porch in just a moment. In a best-case scenario, the camera may catch a face or part of a license plate number, but the reality is that even with this, there is little police can do to return your lost belongings.
• Requires Wi-Fi signal. Your smart doorbell camera will transmit the video to your phone via Wi-Fi, so you’ll need to have a strong signal in your home in order to make it work effectively. It’s likely that your Wi-Fi router is not located near the front door, making it a bit harder to get the kind of signal strength required.
• Digital crime. It’s possible that installing this type of camera will open you up to digital crime. Specifically, hackers may be able to work their way into your Wi-Fi network through the doorbell or through other items connected to the ‘internet of things’.

A Better Option To Protect Your Deliveries

Capturing a video of a porch pirate swiping a package and running off may or may not help the police catch that thief and recover your items. But there is another option available that can prevent the theft entirely. By adding a package lockbox, like PARCELBIN, to your front porch or surrounding area, you’ll have a safe place for items to be left when you aren’t home.

With a video, your packages are still out in the open and available to be snatched—and a criminal can simply cover their face or sneak up from the side to avoid detection. By installing a high quality, secure lockbox instead (or in addition to the doorbell camera), you’ll have a physical barrier that can prevent thieves from even accessing your packages.

Order PARCELBIN Today

If you’re tired of worrying about your deliveries being stolen while you’re away at work, order a PARCELBIN today. Our secure lockbox provides a safe place for the delivery person to leave your packages, with several options for locking.

Our current PARCELBIN model can be locked with a lock of your choice. You can simply provide a code to your lock along with your delivery instructions. We’re also excited to announce that PARCELBIN will soon have smart lock capabilities, and we’re now accepting pre-orders for that model!

PARCELBIN is a simple, elegant solution to package theft, which has become a frustrating problem for so many homeowners. Order yours today!

Get My PARCELBIN