But there is a good chance that you or someone you know has an Amazon Echo or Ring camera.
What is Amazon Sidewalk? In a nutshell, it’s a sort of secondary, shared network for certain connected Amazon devices. The idea is it uses Echo and Ring devices as a bridge to extend connectivity over longer distances. So, say your internet goes down and thus renders your outdoor Ring security camera useless. Not an issue with Sidewalk—you can just tap into a neighbor’s Echo or Ring device. Because, oh yeah, Sidewalk pilfers a small portion of your bandwidth that then gets lumped together with other Echo and Ring devices in your vicinity to create this separate network. In total, Amazon says that the monthly data it will “borrow” is capped at 500 MB, or roughly the equivalent of streaming 10 minutes of high definition video.
As of the May 15th 2021 Amazon quietly turned on this feature if the app is installed if your privacy minded then you probably don’t want this app running.
Liz Sullivan tweeted last year, “Amazon is building the infrastructure to monitor us all. It won’t be long before they package mesh routers into Ring devices to increase the footprint of access. What’s really sad is that they’ll profit from this, while the public eats it up as ‘just another cool gadget.’”
The easiest thing to do is not buy into the Echo or Ring ecosystem. However, there are plenty of reasons why you might want a smart assistant and an Echo in particular. Accessibility for a disabled loved one is one of them. And, when it comes to smart speakers, Pandora’s box is already open. However, Amazon is providing you the option to opt out of Sidewalk—and you should absolutely take it. Sure, it might only take a small portion of users to opt in and enable a privacy nightmare, but you don’t have to be one of them.
Amazon Sidewalk uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and part of the 900 MHz spectrum to transmit data. In May 2020, the FCC opened up the 900MHz spectrum for broadband use; previously, this had been reserved for such devices as cordless phones.
To disable the feature sign into your Amazon account, then tap More > Settings > Account Settings > Amazon Sidewalk. Once there, do yourself a favor and turn that shit off.
