281–290 of 338 posts
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I agree. And what, you're gonna rely on some neighbor's AMZN device proxying the internet for you? I hope the availability of that "smart" sensor or whatever isn't too important.
It’s not an Internet proxy. There is so much misinformation about this it’s nuts. It’s a network to talk to AWS IoT API. It’s not giving random devices access to your network.
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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 =)
> They can get online via any apple device. Airtags don’t “get online.” Apple devices take note of the Airtag’s identifying characteristics (I don’t know how this is defined) and report back to Apple having been in proximity to them. They are “dumb” with respect to the internet. Just Bluetooth beacons.
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With all due respect, it’s a microphone connected to the internet that you are meant to install in your home. How are you surprised to see it used as a surveillance device?
no no no, you should not expect people to behave badly. I agree with the sentiment that it is a crying shame this technology could be used to help people for whom keyboards become complicated but instead it's used to trick them.
you should not excuse people behaving badly because it is to be expected.
if you want to be able to protect against people behaving badly you should learn to expect it of them, expectation of bad behavior enables preparation.
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This could be somewhat mitigated by VPN tunneling all traffic through Amazon’s edge, not sure of their implementation here but I highly doubt that Amazon overlooked this threat model. The exploit attack vector mentioned is already a risk to any device connected to a sensitive network. VLAN your consumer devices, conference room screens, at minimum.
I'm more worried about this amazon mesh network being used for access by other internet devices. For example, it's not easy to get a dumb TV. If I had one I wouldn't want it online. It appears that Amazon would sell access to the TV manufacturer so that it could spy on me via my neighbours Amazon Sidewalk device. To me this is new threat vector. I don't take kindly to corporations spying on me.
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Missed a step in that opt-out how-to: 1. Install Alexa App on phone. Why can't I disable this 'account setting' from the Amazon web portal. Plus, if I mistrust Amazon's repurposing of devices, why would I want an Alexa app installed to potentially repurpose my phone? Funnily enough, Sidewalk was just one of 3 surprising anti-security/anti-privacy settings available only in the app.
"Why would I want an Alexa app installed to potentially repurpose my phone?" You wouldn't. However if you were ambivalent and did not care one way or the other, or unaware of the change, then of course you would not bother to opt-out. This is no doubt Amazon's strategy. And when you opt-out you are forced to install an app that may well have worse consequences than Sidewalk. This strategy, so often used by "tech" com…
I think it's more redefined as something necessary, as the number of good jobs for young people have been on a continuous downward trend for decades all over the world.
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> Seems like a genuine customer problem. If you want to set up smart lights through your back yard, or a smart sensor at the edge of your driver, they might not have WiFi connectivity to the rest of your house. That sounds like a "you" problem, not a "me" problem. If "you" are setting up smart devices where "you" don't have connectivity, "you" should provide the connectivity, not "me". (Note: I don't have a problem w…
"You can help me, I can help you". My smart lights work where I don't have connectivity, but you do, and your tile tracker works where you don't have connectivity, but I do. It's really quite similar to Apple's Find My network. I just wish this was going to some open collective where everyone could benefit, rather than just Amazon customers...
I could see working on Sidewalk as kind of a dream if you have no morals. A mesh network you can turn on with a flip of a switch, with millions of devices across the world? Seems really cool, if you don't care about privacy or security. But if you do - and we should - it's a disaster.
On the flip side I would love it if everyones wifi routers had a second SSID that was open to the general public. Why the hell aren’t we making it easy to share our home bandwidth with friends, family, and strangers needing a few mb of data? If this makes that acceptable again then I’m all in.
I have no interest in supplying bandwidth on my home network to strangers or neighbours.
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…
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.
This could be somewhat mitigated by VPN tunneling all traffic through Amazon’s edge, not sure of their implementation here but I highly doubt that Amazon overlooked this threat model. The exploit attack vector mentioned is already a risk to any device connected to a sensitive network. VLAN your consumer devices, conference room screens, at minimum.