Smartphone App Could Make It Easier For Thieves to Steal Your Keys

With technology developing every day, it’s an ever more difficult task to protect your possessions from theft. New technology allows lawbreakers to gain access to buildings, rooms, offices, and vehicles. With the right tools in the wrong hands, your property could be in danger. And here in California where there are so many drivers and so many people, this poses an even greater risk. This is an area highly populated with people of all types, and criminals and thieves are likely to act on any good opportunity to take advantage of you if you are not careful.

Here in California, a new technological development has been made that could make stealing even easier. A new smartphone app named KeyMe has been invented, which enables its users to take a photograph of a key and then send that image directly to a local locksmith to duplicate it for a few dollars. This app was tested and found that for the low price of $10, you could gain access to someone else’s home or car – simply by taking photographs of their keys.

There are other apps that do this as well, including Belgian KeySave and Keys Duplicated. Each of these could pose a great risk to safety and security if users are not careful. However, the company argues that KeyMe is designed to actually help security because it requires certain aspect for a legitimate picture (such as a white background and a photo of both sides) and provides a digital trail should someone photograph the key and use it unlawfully.

Still, to protect yourself from this risk, keep your keys safe at all times. Do not leave them lying around, and if you have to hand your car key to a valet, give them only the car key – not the whole key ring.

San Diego police officer Mark Herring offers this advice: “(You should) know where your keys are at all times…having them in your possession; if they’re not in your possession, knowing that they’re in a safe and secure place so something can’t happen to them.”

Protect your California vehicle, home, and property from theft by keeping your head on your shoulders and your keys in your own hands; otherwise, you run the risk of someone with a KeyMe app finding them and taking advantage of your absence to find a way to break in.