Will this include their apps? I have Amazon shopping and Amazon music. I’ll shitcan them in a minute if it does.
Once upon a time I thought one of those devices could be handy.
Now I won’t have one in my home. I have a washer/dryer that *CAN* connect to the internet, but they don’t have the internal password, so they are not allowed online.
This is as creepy as I can imagine, and I’m sure it will get even more intrusive.
Thank you for posting this.
We got a free set of Alexa’s from the builder 2 years ago.
They are safely ensconced in my attic gathering dust.
I suppose amazon could do deep packet analysis on any traffic passing through its devices
Sure there have been attacks on wireless security, and routers with bad firmware
and yes there are full linux distros like Kali which help ensure your wireless connections are up to snuff.
This does not mean that Amazon is a bad actor here.
or maybe Jeff is sitting in the cockpit of a Blue origin ship stroking a fluffy white pussy cat while cackling Maniacally about his most recent secret govt project payment
Only certain models will do this, I have a Amazon Alexa that is several years old and will not work on Sidewalks. I keep it off unless in use.
“Siri, kill Alexa!”
Sent Alexa back 2 years ago because it began to sound creepy to us after 2 years of VERY limited use....which we enjoyed, by the way.
Thanks for posting this and making us realize that we made the right decision.
I’m fairly techie and like my gadgets but I will not own a google, MS or amazon talking or automation gadget. The only thing that connects to wifi here are PCs and my wife’s cell phone and that’s bad enough. I bought a new TV a few years ago and made a point of not getting a Smart TV.
Keep all of these IOT devices on another separate network. That involves setting up and maintaining another router. Unghhh. Easier to just say no.
Alexi, shutdown.
“I’m sorry, Dave. I can’t let you do that.”
Some libtard just invented free internet for the homeless.
So how do we opt out?
Ah, American wood and drywall construction.Won’t work to well through my thick concrete and rebar walls…
Done right, this is actually a good thing. I’ve long wanted home routers to provide a mesh network by default, enabling a critical mass to bypass ISP service per se - a ubiquitous Internet connectivity without requiring crappy basic service.
Idea here is each router provides a SMALL fraction of bandwidth to anyone/everyone else, providing basic service to everyone and pressure for ISPs to improve service (rather than milk it).
IN #38 Duncanwaring posts a link to Karl Denninger/market-ticker.org (always worth reading). It is more of a better tracking device, if you want internet when out of range of your home network.
“Now Joe’s Amazon device, for whatever reason (say, it’s in his car or on his dog) is out of range of his WiFi network. It’s looking for that network, but now, not just that network. Nope, now it’s looking for something that it can talk to through this “back door” connection. Best guess, without reading their paper on it in detail: It’s looking for a MAC prefix on a broadcast SSID that says it’s an Amazon-vended device, and if it sees it then it pings at it which results in a “fake” network association it can talk to and does, with a seed key from and generated by Amazon itself.
Except.... wait a second; the existing device has an IP address. So now that existing device (your doorbell) has to run NAT or, in the case of IPv6, go get a second assignment from the gateway (because there are lots in that instance available.)
This sounds reasonably secure but there is a problem: The “roaming” device just got pinned to you because your location is likely known and fixed. In other words now Amazon knows exactly where that thing is that just used “Sidewalk”, whatever it may be.
Yes, I know Amazon says in their white paper they don’t keep that data beyond the ephemeral requirement to do so while the device is in range, and they roll it every 15 minutes. Uh huh. When was the last time anything on the Internet was intentionally discarded if it had value and what are you going to do to Amazon if they’re either lying or that data gets logged and cataloged somewhere, either by them or by someone else’s (e.g. a government’s) request?”
I for one look forward to our new Artificially Intelligent, attitude adjusted, emotionally stable, soft pleasure bot overlords who share our internet with our neighbors.
In the meantime, my toaster seems to be doing a pretty good job of managing my life.