This Is Why You Should Never Share Photos of Your House Keys Online

Posting a photo of your keys is something new homeowners do all the time when showing off their exciting new purchase, often dangling them in front of their front door. But TikTok user Cathy Pedrayes warns fellow TikTokers to not post photos of their new house keys online.

As Pedrayes explains in the Oct. 25 video, some nefarious intruder could make a copy of your key just from that photo alone. And according to the experts, there’s more than one way a potential burglar could do so.

James Bore, a security consultant and amateur locksmith tells Apartment Therapy, “yes, it’s absolutely possible to recreate a key from a photograph,” however being able to do so depends on the type of key and lock. “Most front door keys are of a type which would make that possible,” Bore says, meaning more often than not, your front house key can be recreated through a myriad of methods including 3D printing, filling a blank key, and/or using resin or a mold.

“It’s worth noting that anyone capable of filing a key to fit could use other methods to defeat or bypass a lock, including straightforward picking,” Bore says.

Zach Reece, the founder and COO of Colony Roofers, agrees that after posting a photo of a house key, all one would have to do is buy a blank key, figure out the measurements of the key one is trying to recreate, and have access to a filling machine.

“A decent photograph can be analyzed to figure out what type of key is used,” Reece adds. “There are depth and space charts online that can be used to gauge the size and depth of cuts based on the type of key. The specific depth and space can be arrived at by making a few informed guesses.”

Furthermore, Kristen Bolig, founder of SecurityNerd, notes that several key-making businesses actually promise the ability to duplicate keys based solely on a photo. “Many of these companies don’t vet their customers and may be getting taken advantage of by opportunistic criminals that download people’s house key pictures online,” Bolig tells Apartment Therapy.

So, the moral of this story is to keep your keys away from your camera. There are other ways to announce new homeownership that don’t require put your safety at risk—a picture in front of your front door (house number excluded, of course) will do just fine.