Amazon Sidewalk is a new service that shares your internet connection with other people living in the same neighborhood to extend the range and reliability of Amazon Echo, Ring Security cameras, and Tile trackers.
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Amazon is getting ready to launch a new service called Amazon Sidewalk, and if you have an Echo device or a Ring Floodlight and Spotlight Cam, then the chances are you can donate some of your internet connection to your neighbors.
The idea behind Amazon Sidewalk is that without a reliable internet connection, having a device like a webcam doorbell or security camera is kind of pointless. So, to combat this poor connectivity, Amazon plans to turn select Echo and Ring devices into Sidewalk Bridges and use your internet connection to help others.
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Starting June 8th (US only for now), Amazon will turn your devices into Sidewalk Bridges unless you opt yourself out of the process.
Later this month, Tile tags will be able to connect to Amazon sidewalk, expanding their capabilities and making them more competitive against Apple.
How much of your bandwidth will Sidewalk use? According to Amazon, it's limited to 80Kbps, or as Amazon puts it, about 1/40th the bandwidth used to stream a typical high-definition video — total monthly usage will be limited to 500MB, which, as Amazon puts it, is equivalent to 10 minutes of high-definition video streaming.
But is it safe?
Amazon says yes, and has published a privacy and security report outlining how it has achieved this. The document concludes with why users should have this feature enabled:
“By sharing a small portion of their home network bandwidth, neighbors give little – but get a lot in return.”
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Want to say no to Amazon Sidewalk? Here's how:
- Launch the Alexa
- Tap More and then Settings
- Click Account Settings
- Press Amazon Sidewalk
- You can now enable or disable Amazon Sidewalk
Information source: zdnet.com
