What Does “Trusted Access” Mean?
The conveniences of today’s world are changing the way modern homeowners think about home security, and how they control and monitor access to their home.
The ability to take a visual inventory is critical to establishing trust.
Specifically, as homeowners become accustomed to an on-demand, and experienced-based lifestyle, the traditional lock on a home’s front door, has quickly become outdated.
Take, for instance, the following trends on homeownership.
- Americans are traveling more than ever before. (Source: Forbes)
- E-commerce is on the rise which means package deliveries are increasing. (Source: USA TODAY)
- Pet care and dog walking services are booming. (Source: IBISWorld)
- Home rental services like Airbnb and VRBO are doubling and tripling year over year. (Source: VentureBeat)
A traditional lock doesn’t offer the ability for homeowners to control access to their home while they’re away and therefore accommodate new trends. As a result, homes have begun to shift from a binary lock to an access management system.
What is an Access Management System?
An access management system differs from a tradition lock in the following ways:
- Smarter technology: Allows homeowners to authenticate and verify a person’s identity and allow or block access into their home accordingly.
- More flexibility: Means homeowners can operate their lock both on-site and remotely from a smartphone regardless of if they are across town or across the globe.
- Increased security: Allows homeowners to see and hear what’s going on at their front door.
An example of a trusted access system is the Gate Smart Lock.
How Gate Smart Lock Adopts a Trusted Access System
Gate Smart Lock’s Trusted Access Ecosystem combines technology and style to “perpetuate the enrichment of human societies by enabling the power of trust.”
In other words, Gate’s trusted access system accomplishes four components:
1. Trusted Access is secure.
Convenience is central to adoption in most product categories, but it cannot be put ahead of security. This is why Gate retains the proven physical construction of a classic deadbolt lock (Gate works with physical keys for manual backup), but it adds a closed steel casing (think iPhone) and a LED-lit keypad for accepting unique access codes. Gate owners set time-bracketed access codes with expiration dates so that visitors enter only during designated times.
2. Trusted Access is verifiable.
It’s important to ensure your guests are really who they say they are. To authenticate a guest, visual verification is necessary. Each Gate Smart Lock is equipped with a 720p 150° field-of-view motion-activated camera that streams live video of all activity outside your door to your Gate smartphone app (free). If there’s an issue with visibility, owners can confirm a visitor’s identity by communicating through Gate’s two-way audio, similar to a phone call.
3. Trusted Access is convenient.
Wherever you are, you have control—you can be halfway across town, or across the world, and it’s the same as if you’re standing behind your door and peering through the peephole. Gate connects to your private Wi-Fi network, so you can manage your door permissions wherever you have 4G or Wi-Fi connectivity. Off the grid? Gate works even if you don’t have service (hint: set up access codes ahead of a trip to keep things running smoothly and securely). An entrance management system must be adaptable to the busy, transient lifestyle of today’s connected consumer.
4. Trusted Access is integrated.
The Gate Smart Lock is a simple, sleek, and single piece of equipment that frictionlessly fits into your life’s routines. Gate Smart Lock can be installed in less than ten minutes and managed entirely from the Gate app on your phone, iOS or Android. No additional hardware purchases, installations, or software downloads are necessary.
Don’t All Smart Locks Offer Trusted Access?
No. If a smart lock is missing one or more of the crucial components discussed above, it fails to provide Trusted Access.
For example, if a smart lock is missing a video camera, a property owner cannot visually authenticate a visitor. If the video camera is not integrated into the lock, a property owner cannot view the full access event; however, having a video camera embedded in the smart lock allows property owners to track guests dynamically as they move from outside the property to inside the property and back out (the video camera’s field of view pans with the swinging door).
Whereas, without a video camera, the owner is essentially blind. The ability to take a visual inventory is critical to establishing trust. Is the smart lock able to deliver a visual of your visitors? If not, additional steps must be taken to verify trust. Gate’s embedded video camera simplifies this process into a matter of seconds.
In contrast, video doorbells and security cameras fail to provide Trusted Access because these units are missing the ability to provide access. A doorbell can’t physically lock and unlock your door. Only smart locks can provide access. This is why it’s critical for a visual system to be merged with a security system. You need both.
Even if a smart lock comes with a visual system, it must be integrated — everything should be contained in one unit — to provide Trusted Access. Other video smart lock systems require multiple separate purchases and additional installations of hubs, extenders, keypads, etc. to reach the equivalent capabilities of Gate. The more equipment you need, the more possible points of failure (dead batteries, slow bluetooth pairing, poor inter-device communication, weather damage), whereas a unified security system reduces the number of exposed points and therefore mitigates risks of failure.
A final test for Trusted Access is if there’s a glitch in the electronics of the unit, such as the batteries or phone dying or if an uncontrollable event occurs such as a power outage or a Wi-Fi crash, can the video smart lock still provide access? With Gate, you’re able to cache pin codes in the lock, so if Wi-fi goes out, it’s not an issue — simply use a pin code that has been previously downloaded to the lock. Also, if the battery dies, every Gate smart lock comes with a physical key backup as a fail-safe, so you never get locked out.
The Bottom Line: The underlying principle here is this: Access must remain possible in all scenarios in order for Trusted Access to be maintained.
Trusted Access is the new standard of property entrance security.
Historically, conventional locks cost property owners hours of wasted time driving to and from home, coordinating, and chasing down keys. However, in solving this problem, most smart lock companies prioritized convenience over security and lost the reliability of a conventional lock. With Gate, you get both. Gate is the world’s first all-in-one video-equipped smart lock designed specifically for Trusted Access.
Originally published at https://getgate.com on March 9, 2019.
