If you’re in the U.S. and own Sidewalk-capable Amazon devices, you have one week to opt out of a feature the company calls Amazon Sidewalk, to avoid potential security and privacy issues before your devices are be automatically enrolled on June 8th.
What [Amazon Sidewalk] does is allow your devices to connect to your neighbor’s Wi-Fi, and to allow your neighbor’s devices to connect to yours – all without exchanging passwords.
There are enough theoretical risks to give users pause. Wireless technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have a history of being insecure. Remember WEP, the encryption scheme that protected Wi-Fi traffic from being monitored by nearby parties? It was widely used for four years before researchers exposed flaws that made decrypting data relatively easy for attackers. WPA, the technology that replaced WEP, is much more robust, but it also has a checkered history…
Consider the wealth of intimate details Amazon devices are privy to. They see who knocks on our doors, and in some homes they peer into our living rooms. They hear the conversations we’re having with friends and family. They control locks and other security systems in our home. Extending the reach of all this encrypted data to the sidewalk and living rooms of neighbors requires a level of confidence that’s not warranted for a technology that’s never seen widespread testing.
MacDailyNews Note: How to opt out of Amazon Sidewalk:
- Open the Alexa app
- Tap More > Settings > Account Settings > Amazon Sidewalk > Off
Reality has gone sideways when such a technology is seen as a feature…all without passwords, even!
Before anyone panics be aware that this only will happen if you have a Sidewalk capable Amazon device as mentioned in the article. Here’s an article that has a list of current devices that support Sidewalk. Just because you have a fire TV/Stick or FireOS tablet doesn’t mean your home wifi network will start sharing connections.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/06/01/amazon-sidewalk-echo-devices-share-internet-june-8/5288353001/
For more info on Sidewalk you can inform yourself at:
https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/b?ie=UTF8&node=21328123011
I have a ring Doorbell and Floodlight Cam. That is all I have. Anything else in the house that might have Alexa or Google involved are either not connected, or the microphone (at minimum) are disabled.
I dont have the Alexa App on my phone and can not find sidewalk in the ring app, so I hope I’m “safe”
Huge internet company opens the digital door to your life for anyone that happens to be walking by what could possibly go wrong.