A bunch of New York tenants set their landlord up against the law for upgrading the lock on the front of the building into an electronic one for security purposes without regarding the key each uses to access the building.
It gets a little involving when the tenants have to download an app into their mobile devices to access the entrance.
Landlords of the building which is a limited liability, said the electronic keyless lock was incorporated in the system, to beef up security after a burglary incident in the building in August 2018.
The electronic keyless lock system named Latch is reportedly used in over 1,000 residential apartments around New York.
According to its manufacturer, Latch system is designed to make life easier, without breaching the security and privacy of its users. For safety and harmony purposes in common spaces, property managers are in a position to see and access events for common areas, in the same way as standard key fob and keycard systems work.
Some tenants found it petty, to sue landlords over the keyless system while others felt the for the elderly residents who were yet to upgrade into owning smartphones.
‘It’s ridiculous that everyone is spending all this money to go to court just to get a key,” said Mary Beth McKenzie, 72, an artist who has lived in the building for a decade.
To Clarify how the system works, the company’s CEO Luke Schoenfelder explained the three entry options that keyless lock has.
“We’re sensitive to the different preferences and routines of our users, which is why we offer users three methods of entry: residents can use the smartphone app, a Doorcode, and a physical Keycard. Latch is the only smart access system that provides all three of these methods, at the discretion of each building’s policy,” he said in a statement
In line with their privacy policy, the company said it does not share residents’ access histories of their private spaces, including apartment units, with property managers, except with the residents. The system also does not capture, store or use GPS location data of our users except for certain Android devices that require GPS to be enabled in order to use the Bluetooth functionality upon which the Latch app relies.