Amazon Sidewalk to go Live on 08 Jun

[jhowell]

Some people think, I will help my neighbors and my neighbors will help me and together we will make a better neighborhood for everyone. Others only worry that everyone else will be taking advantage of them and in the end no one benefits. Different aspects of human nature.

[haertig]

Some people think, I get to decide for everyone else. Their thoughts, beliefs, opinions don't matter. Only mine do. I can take whatever they have and use it for whatever I think is best. Because I am more virtuous than they are. Different aspects of human nature.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

The easy solution is to stay away from Amazon's spy gadgets altogether — unless this "Sidewalk" privacy invasion can also access non-Amazon products.

For Sidewalk to have any impact on you, you'll have to have already installed an Amazon listening (and if you have a Show, video surveillance) device in your home. Indeed, you paid for the privilege. Sidewalk doesn't seem to be the time to start worrying about an Amazon privacy invasion. Buddy, that horse has left the barn.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by haertig

Some people think, I get to decide for everyone else. Their thoughts, beliefs, opinions don't matter. Only mine do. I can take whatever they have and use it for whatever I think is best. Because I am more virtuous than they are. Different aspects of human nature.

I did come across way too preachy. A good bottle of wine was involved.

[John F]

Originally Posted by haertig

I do not understand how anyone could be OK with Amazon just taking part of your bandwidth for their own purposes. I don't care how little it may be, or how you probably wouldn't even notice. They are taking something that you are paying for without your express permission. This is theft of services.

How anybody can think that is right and advocate for it is beyond me. Yeah, there may be privacy and security concerns as well, but the whole thing is based on the initial theft of your bandwidth. That is not free, you are paying for it. And Amazon is taking it without your consent. Without even asking for your consent.

Originally Posted by haertig

Some people think, I get to decide for everyone else. Their thoughts, beliefs, opinions don't matter. Only mine do. I can take whatever they have and use it for whatever I think is best. Because I am more virtuous than they are. Different aspects of human nature.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

It's an account setting. Turning Sidewalk off in your Alexa app on one device will disable it for any device registered to that account.

Something not mentioned in this thread (unless I missed it) is that the Sidewalk "disable/enable" setting exists in the Ring app as well as the Alexa app. If applicable, be sure to check both.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

But I can't get too bent out of shape about Sidewalk. If Google did something similar with my Google tech, I wouldn't opt out.

That's your prerogative. And it's not the way I look at it. If you're going to use someone else's property, ask permission first. Seems like a simple concept to me.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Which is as it should be. Opt-out is not "a little sleazy", it's VERY sleazy, indefensible and should be automatically illegal. ...

Exactly.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Sharing information with 3rd party developers doesn't bother you since it is after all not data harvesting. Given the current state of AWS security (see TeamTNT Actively Enumerating Cloud Environments to Infiltrate Organizations for a bit of paranoia inducing information), I'm not sure if I would put Amazon and security in the same sentence with a straight face.

Exactly. Who trusts what a corporate wonk claims any more? I sure don't. Amazon wouldn't do this if there wasn't something in it for them.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by haertig

Hmmm. You're probably not as secure as you may have thought.

Probably not. But I'm not volunteering to be even LESS secure.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Some people think, I will help my neighbors and my neighbors will help me and together we will make a better neighborhood for everyone. Others only worry that everyone else will be taking advantage of them and in the end no one benefits. Different aspects of human nature.

Hopefully you're not equating Amazon with a "good neighbor" who's just "helping out folks." Because it's not the neighbors getting together and mutually sharing, it's Amazon building some kind of connected mesh. I don't buy into their stated reasons for it. I also don't trust them to keep sidewalk disabled Echo devices "sidewalk disabled."

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

For Sidewalk to have any impact on you, you'll have to have already installed an Amazon listening (and if you have a Show, video surveillance) device in your home. Indeed, you paid for the privilege. Sidewalk doesn't seem to be the time to start worrying about an Amazon privacy invasion. Buddy, that horse has left the barn.

I agree with you there, still this is another level of intrusion. At some point those who bought (and own) these devices need to take ownership of them.

[John F]

Originally Posted by rcentros

That's your prerogative. And it's not the way I look at it. If you're going to use someone else's property, ask permission first. Seems like a simple concept to me.

How do you feel about ads on the internet?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

How do you feel about ads on the internet?

The same as adverts on anything else (billboards, TV, Print) if they are just random adverts. But tracking, behaviour analysis etc to somehow target or personalise adverts is totally evil and the claimed benefits that Alphabet (google, youtube etc) and Zuckerberg (Facebook etc) offer advertisers reduce spending on adverts in other media and may be a lie. An invasion of personal privacy and also mysteriously they seem to think the same standards and regulation as for print, TV, Radio etc don't apply. Like not faking it as part of the content (twitter timeline).

Sidewalk isn't directly related to adverts.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The same as adverts on anything else (billboards, TV, Print) if they are just random adverts. But tracking, behaviour analysis etc to somehow target or personalise adverts is totally evil and the claimed benefits that Alphabet (google, youtube etc) and Zuckerberg (Facebook etc) offer advertisers reduce spending on adverts in other media and may be a lie.

"Totally Evil" is not a rational criticism. It's irrational hyperbole.