If you own an Amazon gadget in your house, such as an Alexa or an Echo, you only have seven days to opt out of a study that could compromise your privacy.
Amazon Sidewalk will be a shared network that is intended to improve the performance of client devices both inside and outside the home, such as outdoor lights that may be wi-fi enabled.
If you lose connections, your device will simply transfer to a neighbor’s signal, ensuring that your service remains uninterrupted. When you turn on a new device, it will ask if you want to join the Amazon Sidewalk network, but unless you are opt-out, all of the Amazon devices you own will be automatically integrated.
On June 8, Amazon will launch a scheme in which all Amazon users, unless they are opt-out, will share their bandwidth with their neighbors. The service is known as Amazon Sidewalk.
How will Amazon Sidewalk work?
Amazon’s Sidewalk program allows you to share a piece of your internet connection with your neighbors and vice versa.
This will be accomplished using Alexa smart speakers/displays, Ring security cameras, motion sensors, doorbells, and other Amazon-owned intelligent devices.
It will essentially be used to construct a “low-bandwidth network with the help of Sidewalk Bridge devices, such as certain Echo and Ring devices.”
In order to provide these services to you and your neighbors, these Bridge devices share a little portion of your internet bandwidth.
Why participate in Amazon Sidewalk?
Amazon Sidewalk enables you to connect and keep your gadgets linked. If your Echo device loses its wifi connection, for example, Sidewalk can make reconnecting to your router much more effortless.
Even if your Ring Security Cams lose their wifi connection, you can still receive motion alerts, and customer service can still fix difficulties for select Ring devices.
Sidewalk can also increase the range of your Sidewalk-enabled products, such as Ring bright lights, pet locators, and intelligent locks, allowing them to stay connected and operate over greater distances. To join Sidewalk, Amazon does not charge any fees.
Enrollment by default?
Amazon has released a white paper describing how it intends to preserve people’s privacy and security. It is a fairly extensive document that takes privacy and security seriously.
Although the paper, titled Amazon Sidewalk Privacy and Security Whitepaper, is relatively comprehensive and takes privacy and security seriously.
Hackers and other nefarious agents have repeatedly demonstrated that no security measures are impenetrable, especially when it comes to wireless services.
Following these five simple actions, you may quickly opt-out of Amazon Sidewalk:
- Open the Alexa app
- Open More and choose Settings
- Select Account Settings
- Select Amazon Sidewalk
- Turn Amazon Sidewalk Off
Effect of Amazon Sidewalk on wireless bandwidth and data usage?
The maximum bandwidth available to the Sidewalk server through a Sidewalk Bridge is 80Kbps or about 1/40th of the bandwidth required to stream a typical high-definition video.
When you share your Bridge’s connection with Sidewalk today, total monthly data usage is capped at 500MB per account, which is around 10 minutes of high-definition video streaming.
If you don’t want your neighbors to be inconvenienced, make sure they know what’s going on. Information is power, and in this case, it allows you to opt-out of a possibly harmful program.
