Posted on 06/01/2021 7:27:07 PM PDT by ransomnote
Amazon customers have one week to opt out of a plan that would turn every Echo speaker and Ring security camera in the US into a shared wireless network, as part of the company’s plan to fix connection problems for its smart home devices.
The proposal, called Amazon Sidewalk, involves the company’s devices being used as a springboard to build city-wide “mesh networks” that help simplify the process of setting up new devices, keep them online even if they’re out of range of home wifi, and extend the range of tracking devices such as those made by Tile.
But Sidewalk has come under fire for the apparent lack of transparency with which Amazon has rolled out the feature, as well as the limited time available for users to complete the tricky process required to opt out. Other critics have expressed concerns that failing to turn the setting off could leave customers in breach of their internet service provider’s terms and conditions.
“Amazon Sidewalk is a shared network that helps devices work better,” the company said in a Q&A document for users. “In the future, Sidewalk will support a range of experiences from using Sidewalk-enabled devices, such as smart security and lighting and diagnostics for appliances and tools.”
The feature works by creating a low-bandwidth network using smart home devices such as Amazon Echoes and Ring security cameras. At its simplest, it means that a new Echo can set itself up using a neighbour’s wifi, or a security camera can continue to send motion alerts even if its connection to the internet is disrupted, by piggybacking on the connection of another camera across the street.
MORE AT LINK
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
“Does he have an official position, like Agent?”
Some guy maned Orwell wrote a book about him.
Posted on 6/1/2021, 8:11:20 PM by ransomnote
Some people on fixed data plans are going to get bushwhacked by this theft and find that their neighbors watched a movie on their wifi.
That feature is disabled by default for us. Doesn’t really seem like a big problem at the moment. For us, at least.
Just take your tablet and spy on them
People with the Silver model will trouble turning this off :
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT_gqs5ETk
They will have to go into their Alexia App and click on more at the bottom right, then choose settings, then account settings. You will then see Amazon Sidewalk. Click on that until you see enable, click that to disable.
Thank you!
Thank you!
FWIW
I’ve checked my Alexa app several times in the last few days and it was disabled to start with and has stayed disabled.
The disclaimer on the page says that you can update your setting (turn it on or off) at any time, not just before next week.
They live 800 miles away.
They’re socialists so IMO they should be required to share their bandwidth.
bookmark
It’s a broad-based exploit looking for a place to happen. I don’t let this garbage in my home. I laugh at friends when they show me all the cool stuff they can do with Dots all over their homes. Fools, all of them.
first they foist this crap on folks who aren;t too tech savvy, but who think it would be a good idea, then when millions have the devices, then they fairly sneakily tie it all into a network knowing that most people won’t even get the memo that it’s happening- or bother to take the time to opt out if they do know
Glad to help...
Winston was amazed.
“You can turn it off?”
Typically, the instructions on how to "opt out" begin with, "First you have to reconfigure your deflector phalanx. Then, after establishing a sub-space bubble around your warp core..."
In other words, unless you have a degree in IT, you're up the creek without a paddle.
Instead, there should simply be a big, red button on every device, marked "Press here to opt out."
Regards,
So these devices already had the hotspot functions? And they’re now to be activated?
Will the vaxholes get activated as well?
Sure you can turn it off. Wink wink. You can go to the setting screen and click the sidewalk option to off. Do you really know if it’s off? Unless you keep a daily log of your WAN usage you’ll never know. Kind of like turning off the GPS location and finding out it never is really off. For metered connections with a data cap this could be a dicey option.
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