Valkyrie’s latest article features on page 145 of the June Home Special edition of Absolutely magazine.
Titled “They Left. Or Did They?”, the piece looks at a growing but often overlooked household security issue: lingering digital access.
When someone leaves a home environment — a partner, member of staff, contractor or housekeeper — most attention goes to the visible handover. Keys are returned, conversations are had, and practical arrangements are settled.
But what about the access that sits quietly inside apps, accounts and connected systems?
Smart locks. CCTV apps. Alarm accounts. Home automation platforms. Shared cloud storage. Location-sharing services. Family subscriptions. Device permissions.
Individually, these can feel like small administrative details. Together, they can provide a live window into a household’s routines, movements, security posture and family life.
This matters most at points of change: separation, staff turnover, tenancy changes, renovations, or the end of a working relationship. These are the moments when trusted access should contract. Too often, it does not, not because people are careless, but because nobody asks the question.
Three practical points are worth remembering:
- Digital offboarding should be treated with the same seriousness as collecting keys.
- Convenience-based systems are not always designed for dispute, separation or staff change.
- Assumed security and actual security are often very different things.
The solution is rarely complex. It starts with discipline: knowing who has access, reviewing it at every point of change, and revoking it with certainty rather than assumption.
The home may look secure from the outside. The real gap is often in the apps still running quietly on someone else’s phone.
You can read the full June edition here: https://issuu.com/zestmedialondon/docs/absolutely_kensington_chelsea_june_2026
