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You can’t opt out of Sidewalk after June 9. You can opt out of Apple’s Find My network any time you want on a per device basis.
You can opt out at any time. June 9th is just when they're turning the network on.
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We all know the answer to this. It absolutely should be opt-in, but they know that around 96% of people will never opt-in. See: iOS 14.5 privacy changes.
Making something opt-out because you know that people would not opt in voluntarily is a class of evil on its own. It is simply fraud and deception.
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We all know the answer to this. It absolutely should be opt-in, but they know that around 96% of people will never opt-in. See: iOS 14.5 privacy changes.
Making something opt-out because you know that people would not opt in voluntarily is a class of evil on its own. It is simply fraud and deception.
We had this whole debate over COVID tracking. They've come up with a system that is actually pretty secure. It's entirely client side: none of your location information is ever revealed unless you report yourself as having tested positive for COVID. Opting in is not that unreasonable even for paranoid people (I use the app). And yet it has to be an opt-in system, which means it's unlikely to be effective.
Similar with Apple having its network for those tracking things set to opt-out, not opt-in. Having the network available to its customers is a benefit to them, and not enough people would opt in.
IMO, we need a third alternative in between opt-out and opt-in. The first doesn't sufficiently respect individuals' right to privacy, the second falls apart in a kind of inverse tragedy of the commons. As far as I know the only possible alternative is forced-choice: while setting up the device you should have to read a short statement about what it can do and the positives / negatives, and choose whether you want to enable that feature.
I imagine many people working at Amazon do feel that this feature provides value to people without impacting privacy. It's effectively a very low bitrate VPN to the Amazon cloud for the purpose of controlling IOT devices. As far as mesh networks go, that's pretty unintrusive and certainly provides value to some customers, even though I agree that making it opt-out is unacceptable.
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…
Every time this Sidewalk concern style story crops up (which it has several times over the last 6-12 months), I have rechecked that Sidewalk is disabled. So far I have not found it set to anything except for disabled. I hope Amazon isn’t doing a gradual roll out to enable, as if I find it enabled at any point in the future, I am done with Amazon devices in my home. As far as I’m concerned based on Amazon Logistics pe…
I cancelled Prime last year so have been shopping around more...I've consistently been able to find cheaper prices elsewhere with free 2 day shipping.
> Users can disable Sidewalk in the settings section of the Alexa or Ring apps, but have until 8 June to do so. After that, if they have taken no action, the network will be turned on and their devices will become “Sidewalk Bridges”. Wait so what if a user buys Alexa after June 8? Are they automatically enrolled into this mass wireless sharing program with no way out?
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Can Apple devices use your mobile data to participate in the FindMy network? This seems like a weird line to draw.
The apple airtag devices do the same thing. They can get online via any apple device. Not sure if that applies to other FindMy devices though. I hope it does =)
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Dedicated SSID(s) with that/those SSID configured as a guest network goes pretty far. I happen to use Ubiquiti gear, but most any router is likely capable of creating a dedicated guest SSID (or multiple). That covers wireless devices (which is all the IoT stuff that I have). The one aggravation I had was trying to get the Chromecasts to work correctly (where I wanted to be able to cast from a machine on the main LAN…
> I would periodically get it working and then it would periodically break. wait a second... it worked sometimes? without doing any routing trickery or something? If you did some trickery maybe the devices sometimes chose to speak ipv6 but could not?
OpnSense is the firewall.
I just disabled Sidewalk on mine a few days ago. This feels like it could be part of the plot of one of RMS's short stories a-la Right to Read. Jeez. What a joke. Not a ha-ha joke, you know what I mean. That said, part of me (a very small part, mind you. Infinitesimal even.) wonders if in some weird way this will be good for the internet? Suddenly, thanks to Amazon, an IP address is no longer a person and you can poi…
Mesh networks would be great. But should be opt in
1. The kind of data collection that this will enable (random tv can send data back to the manufacturer even if you never connect it to the internet)
2. Amazon being in control / being the only one that can decide what devices connect.
3. The user receiving no benefit for enabling this
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Various use case stories... You've got an Alexa, your neighbor has a Ring. The network goes out on your neighbor's house. The Ring can then use your Alexa provided sidewalk network to send a notification to your neighbor about a package or whatever. Someone makes Tile like product that can use Sidewalk to track its location. The sidewalk extends its range and accuracy. Right now, it really appears to be just Ring dev…
How do you know you really disabled it? What if it does the same as Google that was recording location data and then uploaded them right after you established a WiFi connection? What if Amazon devices would do that a few times a day without you noticing, and the "disable Sidewalk" button would just mean "do it less frequently"?
Amazon's business model isn't "sell your info" - its "sell you stuff."
The intentional deception would get them in much deeper trouble to the point that your "what ifs" would be something a company lawyer would stop rather quickly.