Public service: you have until June 08, 2021 to opt out of Amazon's Sidewalk

[Rin Tin Pen]

Presented as a Public Service if you own one or more Amazon internet devices. NOTE: Kindle devices are not affected.

Amazon is launching its Wi-Fi sharing system, called Sidewalk, nationwide in the U.S. on June 8. That means if you own a Ring doorbell or Amazon Echo the company will share a small portion of your internet bandwidth with other devices nearby. It’s aimed at making sure Amazon’s devices are able to be online even if, say, your broadband goes down as well as allowing access to devices outside of the normal range of your Wi-Fi.

Amazon’s selling this as a way to ensure that smart home devices can be reached more easily as well as allowing Amazon to offer certain customer support for those devices even when they’ve dropped off your network.

Last, let’s not forget who’s providing this new way for everyone to share and share alike. As independent privacy researcher Ashkan Soltani puts it: “In addition to capturing everyone’s shopping habits (from amazon.com) and their internet activity (as AWS is one of the most dominant web hosting services)... now they are also effectively becoming a global ISP with a flick of a switch, all without even having to lay a single foot of fiber.”

Amazon’s decision to make Sidewalk an opt-out service rather than an opt-in one is also telling. The company knows the only chance of the service gaining critical mass is to turn it on by default, so that’s what it’s doing. Fortunately, turning Sidewalk off is relatively painless. It involves:

1. Opening the Alexa app
2. Opening More and selecting Settings
3. Selecting Account Settings
4. Selecting Amazon Sidewalk
5. Turning Amazon Sidewalk Off

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 (3rd gen and newer)
* Echo Dot (3rd gen and newer)
* Echo Dot for Kids (3rd gen and newer)
* Echo Dot with Clock (3rd gen and newer)
* Echo Plus (all generations)
* Echo Show (2nd gen)
* Echo Show 5, 8, 10 (all generations)
* Echo Spot
* Echo Studio
* Echo Input
* Echo Flex