Posted on 11/24/2020 9:38:43 AM PST by rxsid
What is Amazon Sidewalk?
Amazon Sidewalk is a shared network that helps devices work better. Operated by Amazon at no charge to customers, Sidewalk can help simplify new device setup, extend the low-bandwidth working range of devices, and help devices stay online even if they are outside the range of their home wifi. In the future, Sidewalk will support a range of experiences from using Sidewalk-enabled devices to help find pets or valuables, to smart security and lighting, to diagnostics for appliances and tools. "Amazon Sidewalk is a shared network, coming later this year, that helps devices like Amazon Echo devices, Ring Security Cams, outdoor lights, and motion sensors work better at home and beyond the front door. When enabled, Sidewalk can unlock unique benefits for your device, support other Sidewalk devices in your community, and even open the door to new innovations like locating items connected to Sidewalk.
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Where can I change my Amazon Sidewalk preferences?
Available later this year, Ring customers who own an eligible device can choose to update their Amazon Sidewalk preferences anytime from the Control Center in the Ring app or Ring website. Echo customers who own an eligible device can update their Amazon Sidewalk preferences anytime from Settings in the Alexa app. If you have linked your Ring and Amazon accounts, your Sidewalk preferences on either your Alexa or Ring app will apply to all of your eligible Echo and Ring devices.
How does Amazon Sidewalk work?
Customers with a Sidewalk Bridge (today, many Echo devices, Ring Floodlight Cams and Ring Spotlight Cams) can contribute a small portion of their internet bandwidth, which is pooled together to create a shared network that benefits all Sidewalk-enabled devices in a community. Amazon Sidewalk uses Bluetooth, the 900 MHz spectrum and other frequencies to extend coverage and provide these benefits.
What are Sidewalk Bridges, and which devices are able to become Sidewalk Bridges?
Sidewalk Bridges are devices that provide connections to Amazon Sidewalk. Today, Sidewalk Bridges include many Echo devices and select Ring Floodlight and Spotlight Cams. A comprehensive list of Sidewalk devices includes: Ring Floodlight Cam (2019), Ring Spotlight Cam Wired (2019), Ring Spotlight Cam Mount (2019), Echo (2nd Gen), Echo (3rd Gen), Echo (4th Gen), Echo Dot (2nd Gen), Echo Dot (3rd Gen), Echo Dot (4th Gen), Echo Dot (2nd Gen) for Kids, Echo Dot (3rd Gen) for Kids, Echo Dot (4th Gen) for Kids, Echo Dot with Clock (3rd Gen), Echo Dot with Clock (4th Gen), Echo Plus (1st Gen), Echo Plus (2nd Gen), Echo Show (1st Gen), Echo Show (2nd Gen), Echo Show 5, Echo Show 8, Echo Show 10, Echo Spot, Echo Studio.
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How will Amazon Sidewalk impact my personal wireless bandwidth and data usage?
The maximum bandwidth of a Sidewalk Bridge to the Sidewalk server is 80Kbps, which is about 1/40th of the bandwidth used to stream a typical high definition video. Today, when you share your Bridge’s connection with Sidewalk, total monthly data used by Sidewalk, per account, is capped at 500MB, which is equivalent to streaming about 10 minutes of high definition video.
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Will I know what other Sidewalk-enabled devices are connected to my Bridge?
Preserving customer privacy and security is foundational to how we’ve built Amazon Sidewalk. Information transferred over Sidewalk Bridges is encrypted and Bridge customers are not able to see that Sidewalk-enabled devices are connected to their Bridge. Customers who own Sidewalk-enabled devices will know they are connected to Sidewalk but will not be able to identify which Bridge they are connected to.
Amazon Sidewalk - "Sharing" your network bandwidth with the neighbors
Is Amazon a comedy site?
I don’t get it. What is the point of “sharing bandwidth?”
Oh Yay!
Not only will Amazon be spying on me, but so will the neighbors!
Seriously! Who comes up with this crap??
Socialist brainwashing?
Weird porn search blame deflecting?
Some of us are still on metered connections (sigh). So no.
“help devices stay online even if they are outside the range of their home wifi”
Isn’t that called public wifi?
I miss the days of Webtv...sure you could download anything...but you could get online for $9 a month.
Uh, no.
This is a crazy idea but you can disable the feature.
could’NT download that is.
Coincidentally, Bezos will track everything.
Surprise!
Didn’t WebTV type everything in caps?
It is simple. It is a way to convince people to open a port into their home network so that their personal devices can be more easily hacked. I have been “given” 3 amazon devices over the years, and refuse to implement them, simply because I dont want anything “listening” to the conversations in my home ... then F-N Dish built the crap into their boxes and used that to replace their voice control on the remote, so I dumped Dish. Now Xfinity doing the same. Running out of options to keep the stuff out of my house. According to the article, this is now built into Ring so now I need to toss the Ring.
Sounds like a good way for pervs to download kiddie porn and leave someone else holding the bag.
No thanks.
No ...only the subscribers did that...Webtv folks were not liked by the sophisticated win98 crowd...many who paid $1500 plus dollars to be able to conduct a internet search for stuff like “small sized” only to be accidentally sent to porn sites involving midgets and the like.
***** Customers who own Sidewalk.....will not be able to identify which Bridge they are connected to.****
That’s just rich
Another ‘altruistic’ data harvesting scheme. You can smell the stink of totalitarian evil a mile away.
They are building Alexa and Google voice capability into televisions now. I wonder if they will be able to snoop on you even if you don’t activate them?
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