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Amazon US customers given one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing

theguardian.com

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Re: Amazon US customers given one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing

#111

Post by [deleted] »

rudyfink wrote: post #20
shiado wrote: post #7

What will happen is some high profile company that has a few Amazon devices on their network will have these devices exploited to gain network access and get hit with some ransomware/data theft/etc... and then there will be a big legal battle between Amazon and the hacked company and this whole idea will be shut down and consumers will get a $10 class action settlement for each device.

Maybe not? Most consumer arbitration agreements these days ban asserting class claims. This has been on the rise since 2011: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Mobility_LLC_v._Concepc... . In my opinion, this legal change is a huge sleeper story that is behind a number of changes in how customers are getting treated. Since customers can no longer economically avail themselves of the courts to protect themselves en-…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon US customers given one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing

#112

Post by Kye »

I used to get annoyed every time Amazon would push an OS update to my old Kindle fire only to patch a root exploit I could use to install an up to date Android, but it's probably for the best that they lost me as a customer with their hostile practices.

Re: Amazon US customers given one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing

#113

Post by xboxnolifes »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #41
a3n wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But not many people would bother to opt in, even if they knew about it, so ...

Well if noone who owns these devices wants to do it it probably shouldn't be done then, right? Or Amazon could give a 5$ credit or something. That would probably be enough.

Reality is, most people who own these devices wouldn't know how or be aware it's even an option, and a mass marketing campaign would need to go into effect to just make people aware of it and why they would potentially want to do it.

Or they can just make it automatic.

Re: Amazon US customers given one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing

#115

Post by kstrauser »

adolph wrote: post #102
failwhaleshark wrote: post #73

94.9% pure, organic, outrage, clickbait FUD. This feels like an "you're either with us or you're against us, Amazon B A D"-article. The central thesis is misleading and wrong because it's NOT "unlimited, direct sharing of your WiFi to whatever Amazon users happen to fall and scrape their knees outside your home because they can't skateboard," it's "likely low-rate connectivity for other Amazon users' devices over Blu…

When youʼve left something far behind, like at the beach or the gym, the Find My network — hundreds of millions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices around the world — helps track down your AirTag. And itʼs designed to protect your privacy every step of the way. I wonder if Apple has opt-out/in for the "Find My network?" https://www.apple.com/airtag/

Here's how you turn it on (or off): https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210400

Re: Amazon US customers given one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing

#116

Post by FredPret »

Scoundreller wrote: post #89
criley2 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same thing Apple is doing. They want every device to be a part of a low-power BLE network for Apple AirTags or Amazon Echo Tiles or whatever they are. They want a huge network so that these small low power devices can use everyones devices to connect to the internet. For what it's worth, the only way to Opt-Out from Apple's broad network like this is to disable all "Find My" network tracking, so you'll never…

To be honest, I find these ad hoc mobile mesh networks fascinating. With cheap flash, we could do a lot of high-latency high-bandwidth data transport with just existing movements. We could eliminate telecoms overnight but we just don’t have the organization to do it. Like, every house used to have a VHF/UHF receiving tower on it.

A content “delivery” network running on human movements. Now that’d be an interesting routing problem.

Re: Amazon US customers given one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing

#117

Post by wearywanderer »

sokoloff wrote: post #80
vincent-toups wrote: post #14

I'd rather go without internet than have one of these damned smart devices in my house. I can't believe how popular they are.

I have my IoT/IoS devices cordoned off onto their own network locally (with internet access, of course) as a matter of trying to protect my LAN from any exploit. However, I find the convenience of these devices to be extremely high: they play music, they give us convenient timers, they function as a whole house intercom, they tell us the weather and answer (often poorly) some random questions without going to get our…

With the advent of this technology, it's no longer just your data that's being risked. If you have a neighbor who owns a sidewalk-enabled appliance and doesn't want it to connect online, anybody in the neighborhood with sidewalk enabled is now an accomplice in subverting the preferences and desires of that person.

It's no longer enough to think "Well I didn't give the TV my wifi password, so it can't spy on me." Now I have to wonder about what opt-out bullshit buried deep in settings menus my neighbors neglected to disable.

Re: Amazon US customers given one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing

#118

Post by a4isms »

criley2 wrote: post #78
remarkEon wrote: post #68

Article doesn't mention it, but this is how you opt-out (there are others but this one has screenshots). https://www.tomsguide.com/reference/what-is-amazon-sidewalk Added to my list for the next time I'm on the phone with my parents, for our (weekly at this point) how-to sessions on "stopping the industry I work in from spying on you". I really, really wish product managers would understand the kind of ecosystem they…

It's the same thing Apple is doing. They want every device to be a part of a low-power BLE network for Apple AirTags or Amazon Echo Tiles or whatever they are. They want a huge network so that these small low power devices can use everyones devices to connect to the internet. For what it's worth, the only way to Opt-Out from Apple's broad network like this is to disable all "Find My" network tracking, so you'll never…

The idea of a mesh network is not what concerns most people. It’s the idea that devices from Amazon connect to it automatically and can do whatever they want with it.

The canonical anti-example is this: You buy a smart TV, but don’t give it your WiFi password. No problem, it connects to any Amazon device whether in your house or next door, and now it can sell information about what you watch, how many people its camera can see are in the room, words you say aloud in its presence, &c.

At the engineering level, Apple’s mesh looks like Amazon’s mesh in exactly the same way that at the engineering level, an iPhone looks a lot like a high-end Android phone. What’s different between them is what Amazon uses its mesh network for, just as what’s different between an iPhone and an Android phone is what Google uses its access to your devices for.

Apple obstructs adtech and tracking. Google builds its business on adtech and tracking. Apple uses its mesh network to find items. People fear that Amazon will use its mesh network to spy on you in the name of revenue.

Re: Amazon US customers given one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing

#119

Post by dlhavema »

ch4s3 wrote: post #30
slobiwan wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check the Alexa app, not the Amazon app. Shows up in mine

I'm seeing the same issue as the parent. I've check the alexa app under account settings and the option does not appear. The last version on the app store is from 2 weeks ago. I wonder if this is a web view and they're exposing it to different users at different times.

Maybe. I'm on Android "version 2.2.403931.0" and no option...

Re: Amazon US customers given one week to opt out of mass wireless sharing

#120

Post by ikiris »

asdff wrote: post #59
adamredwoods wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon notes this in their FAQ: it's capped at 80kbps and max of 500MB per month. I don't know if this includes Bluetooth though.

So they are stealing 500MB of your cap if they aren't compensating you.

As exchange for their otherwise unpaid service from those devices, they're using a fraction of your potentially capped internet if you happen to be in a market with such poor competition and/or poor regulatory environment that your service is capped.
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