Amazon Sidewalk to go Live on 08 Jun

[John F]

Originally Posted by haertig

I hate ads - I do everything I can to subvert them.

But ads are not the same as Sidewalk. Why some people have attempted to draw this equivalency, I don't understand.

Which is fine, if you can't understand you can't understand. I can understand the equivalency to ads. So if someone is categorizing people as As or Bs, ...

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by John F

Haertig, are you on Side A or side B?

Again, you quote from something I wrote before I knew about the data cap (message #16 of 146) — and I haven't brought up this point since then. This is basically a dishonest tactic. And it changes nothing about the fact that Amazon is intruding (and stealing) without first obtaining permission. Try to stick with that point and quit moving the goal post back in an attempt to discredit me.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by John F

And I tend to think, at least in the U.S., that society doesn't consider what Amazon is doing is "theft".

And I tend to think you're wrong.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by John F

I just heard another theory about Amazon Sidewalk: Amazon is implementing it now so in the future it will be there for their drone deliveries.

So they are planning to use the data they collect for other purposes. Why am I not surprised?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by shalym

...but that's exactly what Apple does. It uses every iPhone in the world to find the things with Airtags attached. This is from the Airtag web page:

Okay, didn't know that. Another good reason not to use Apple products (which I've never used anyhow).

[John F]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Again, you quote from something I wrote before I knew about the data cap (message #16 of 146) — and I haven't brought up this point since then. This is basically a dishonest tactic. And it changes nothing about the fact that Amazon is intruding (and stealing) without first obtaining permission. Try to stick with that point and quit moving the goal post back in an attempt to discredit me.

My apologies. I hit the quote button and it copied the whole post. I should have removed your quotes. Again my apologies.

[John F]

Originally Posted by rcentros

And I tend to think you're wrong.

Why?

Why I think society doesn't think it is theft, note that some of my terms (like society), may be a little loose, but I hope you get the point. And this is my understanding for the U.S.A. and my jurisdiction work, your jurisdiction may vary.

When society agrees that something is wrong, they pass laws. We have laws for theft. I think if I called the local police, FBI, DA, ... and tried to get them to do something about it, they would say that they can't/won't do anything; so it isn't a criminal offense. Could I bring a civil case? I guess, but if I brought the suit saying it was theft, I would guess it would get dismissed fairly early in the process.

So why do you think society think it is theft?

[John F]

Originally Posted by rcentros

So they are planning to use the data they collect for other purposes. Why am I not surprised?

Please don't put words in my mouth. I said it was a theory.

[Pajamaman]

Amazon likely does have big future plans for sidewalk. It occurred to me that they could use it as a wifi "hotspot" for Kindle users to buy books over. It's a low bandwidth functionality. It would make 3G less necessary.

Regarding things like Alexa, voice transmission is very low bandwidth these days. That would work too. Sidewalk has countless potential uses that would multiply the wider the network is.

I wonder how deep is the penetration of Amazon and potential sidewalk devices is. It's 46.5 million Echos in the USA. Then there are Shows, etc. I wonder what other Amazon internet-activated devices there are that could be piggy-backed? What about Kindles? And that's just Amazon. Echos have only about 50% of the market.

It's interesting technology, and I can see why it makes some people uneasy about privacy. Obviously the government, and other entities, will be able to access these devices. The web is growing and becoming more detailed.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by John F

My apologies. I hit the quote button and it copied the whole post. I should have removed your quotes. Again my apologies.

Don't worry about it. I get a little (a lot?) too "intense" in these discussions sometimes. I'm trying to learn to say what I want to say and then let it go. But I forget to do that too often.

My apologies. Now I'm going to try to forget this thread exists.

[Fiat_Lux]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Illegal?!? One needs to a get a bit of grip, here.

1) Sidewalk is not a data gathering ploy. Had you read the security whitepaper, you'd know this. And...

Not quite. Sidewalk has not be promoted as a data gathering ploy. The security paper makes it quite clear and blatantly obvious that it will be used for data gathering.

The irony here is that Sidewalk probably represents the first thing Amazon have done in a long, long while that ISN'T about data harvesting.

Just because Amazon has not announced how they plan to utilize the harvested data, does not mean that it will not be used for that purpose.

The security paper left me wondering if my original four year estimate is overly optimistic. After rereading the security paper, January 2021 looks more plausible for when Amazon starts distributing harvested data to third parties.

Companies can legally change Terms and Conditions whenever they wish, to whatever they wish. As such, any current statement is, at best, an aspirational statement regarding the best behavior that the company will think about achieving.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Fiat_Lux

Just because Amazon has not announced how they plan to utilize the harvested data, does not mean that it will not be used for that purpose.

And by the same logic: someone on the internet with an Amazon axe to grind saying it's (data harvesting) sure to happen does not actually make it any more likely to happen.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Fiat_Lux

N After rereading the security paper, January 2021 looks more plausible for when Amazon starts distributing harvested data to third parties.

A typo, surely?