As a part of ADDA GateKeeper team, we find it a great honour to be entrusted with the Security Gate Automation of Residential Communities – to be of service in protecting Families and Homes.
While doing so, we have made these 3 principles the pillar of the ADDA GateKeeper Solution:
- Simple – Simple so every User can use the Solution effectively.
- Secure – Secure so we never lose sight of the ultimate purpose and know how to mix the Hi-Tech and Low-Tech towards it.
- Responsible – Responsible so we know to protect the not so obvious.
While building the ADDA GateKeeper based on these principles, below are the BlindSpots we unearthed.
BlindSpot 1: Stopping the Interactive Call from the Gate to the Flat/Resident
While we are automating many security processes, “over-automation” can actually REDUCE Security of a Residential Complex.
Below is one such automation that ADDA GateKeeper has avoided.
In the ADDA GateKeeper solution Visitor Data is entered in the Tablet, and Notification goes to all relevant people and there’s a lot of intelligence built in here that causes Delight to Residents.
However, the decision point of “Whether the Visitor should be allowed inside or not?” is NOT automated.
This aspect is taken care of in the good old low-tech way: Guard must call the Flat, of course helped by Technology.
a) Call the Intercom of the Flat (Security Guard can see the Intercom Number right in front of him on the tablet)
b) If Intercom is busy or faulty, call the Mobile Number of the Flat (again, Guard can trigger this call right from his Tablet).
An INTERACTIVE call with the person IN THE FLAT is important to decide whether a Visitor should be allowed in.
This very important checkpoint cannot be left to be done on an app in the hand of the Resident.
Below are some of the reasons for it.
- Unexpected Visitors: Often there are visitors to your apartment, whose purpose of visit you are not sure about. This maybe for delivery of an item bought from any e-commerce site by any of your family member or even food delivery ordered while you are not at home. In such cases the Resident often needs more information than entered by the Guard to understand the purpose of the Visitor. The Resident may even want to talk to the Visitor while at the gate. This is not possible with a IVR message.
- Senior Citizens: In many cases, the person at home are Senior Citizens or Maids in charge of Children. Often they can not operate an App to allow or disallow a Visitor. An interactive call from the Guard is needed here. It could be to the Intercom or to their Mobile Number.
- Tenants: In popular Apartment Communities, Tenants move-ins happen very often. To expect every new Tenant to have the app is not realistic. Or by the time they come to know about such a system, quite a few of their visitors would have been sent back!
- The frequent travellers: Residents who often travel, visit their flat occasionally, have make-shift mobile phones with flaky Internet or Apps not installed. They should have a way to allow or disallow a Visitor.
These reasons have us believe that if the INTERACTIVE call from the Gate to the Flat was to be eliminated, it will actually reduce the Security which already existed. Because, soon the resident/owner would get into a habit of approving visitors without knowing their real purpose of visit!
With ADDA GateKeeper, Residents who are App-Savvy pre-enter their Expected Visitors. This eliminates the need for the call. So the number of cases where the Call must be made comes down by itself.
BlindSpot 2: Pre-Populating Visitors Data from a Common Database
Any cloud based system has to be responsible – towards the privacy of people whose data is stored on it.
Visitor Data is private to the Visitors themselves and the Visit Data (who visited whom and when) is private to Visitor and the Host.
The above data should be available only to the particular Residential Complex, solely for ITA – Incident Investigation, Trend Observation and Anomaly Detection.
Some Customers ask us to maintain a “Common Database” of Visitors which is built with the Visitors’ Entry across all Apartment Complexes’ that use the ADDA GateKeeper Solution. We do not support such functionalities as we believe that they result in significant Data Privacy Breach.
The purpose is to pre-populate this data in the Tab so the Guard’s work becomes easier.
This means: The Guard must type in the Phone Number of a Visitor in his tab, if this Visitor has visited any other Apartment Complex that uses ADDA GateKeeper, the Visitor’s data should show up automatically. The Visitor’s Name, Vehicle Detail, Picture, Company.
a) Customers assume this will be done only for Delivery Boys, Service Agents (e.g., beauticians, carpenters, mechanics), Property Agents etc.
It is assumed that such commercial agents need not be asked for their consent for their data to be made available to all apartment complexes.
We don’t believe in this selective breach of Data Privacy.
We are committed to the Data Privacy of ALL VISITORS and to the right of the Visitor to provide his personal data knowingly to every Apartment Complex that he visits.
b) The data populating this “Common Database” is NOT coming from the Companies that employ the Delivery Boys etc.
It is being populated by the Security Guard of the first Apartment Complex with this Solution where the Delivery Boy visited.
This essentially means we don’t trust our own Security Guard to capture the right data, but trust someone else’s Security Guard.
c) The Identifier in this Common Database is a Phone Number.
The same phone number can be used by various people specially if it is an official number. In case of any incident the person who would be arrested might not be the person who would have committed the crime.
Who verifies if the pre-populated data is correct. If the Guard is to verify, then his work did not get easier.
If the Guard is not verifying, then often WRONG Visitor data is getting captured!
d) Who ensures that the data thus being stored in the Common Database and shared with everyone is actually that of Commercial Agents like Delivery boys?
The same Security Guard of the first Apartment Complex?
e) Who ensures that a Security Guard with this Solution in his tab won’t simply enter the Phone Number of a person and misuse the data he sees?
It is for these reasons that such Common Database is not used by GateKeeper.
So, will ADDA GateKeeper never provide such common database. Sure it will – once/if Aadhar database, which uses biometric as identifier and not a phone number, becomes legally available for such use. Also, with complete knowledge and consent of the Visitor for such common usage.
Until then we keep chiseling away at the Visitor Data entry process so that it takes least time for the Guard. And we make the Expected Visitor Entry to be done by Residents very attractive.
The proof that this works is the LARGEST apartment complex with 1500 VISITORS PER DAY using GateKeeper smoothly for the last 10+ months!
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
The post App Based Security – Avoiding the BlindSpots appeared first on ADDA Blog - Connect with your Neighborhood.