Amazon will soon allow its devices like Alex and Echo to share the internet with your neighbors. The company will sign up the said products to Sidewalk by default. And users still have ten days to stop it from invading their privacy and security.
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BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM – AUGUST 11: In this photo illustration a woman has the online retailer Amazon logo reflected in her eye as she shops online on August 11, 2014 in Bristol, United Kingdom. This week marks the 20th anniversary of the first online sale. Since that sale – a copy of an album by the artist Sting – online retailing has grown to such an extent that it is now claimed that 95 percent of the UK population has shopped online and close to one in four deciding to shop online each week.
ArsTechnica reported that Amazon will be enrolling its devices to Amazon Sidewalk on June 8. With that, the internet connection of its users could be enjoyed by their neighbors at certain proximity. If unnoticed, someone else from the next door may be hogging your bandwidth without your consent.
Moreover, the Amazon Smart Plug also have the same security flaw that hackers use.
Amazon Sidewalk: What Exactly Is It?
The security risk feature is a shared network for Amazon Echo, security cams, motion sensors, outdoor lights, and the Tile trackers. It helps them stay online when the home internet has a weak range, the company said on its website.
Furthermore, it allows these devices to be utilized even beyond the four walls of a home. Like, for instance, the garden of the front yard.
Amazon urges its users to participate in Sidewalk to ensure that its home products remain functional no matter where it is at home. The company also noted that they are offering it for free for their users.
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How To Opt-Out From Amazon Sidewalk?
Before Amazon enables the shared network feature to its devices in a few more days, users have a choice to turn it off beforehand.
This option, however, has been here for a long time.
Users who wanted to opt-in to the said feature used to go this route. Only now, it goes the other way around as Amazon forces its users to use it by default. So, expect it to be simple and easy to toggle.
- Open the Alexa application
- Select More
- Click Settings
- Then, open Account Settings
- After which, select Amazon Sidewalk
- Finally, toggle the Amazon Sidewalk Off option
After that, users will no longer be automatically signed up for the security risk feature. As of now, Sidewalk has its benefits, as mentioned above. However, ArsTechnica said, its security flaw still outweighs it. Thankfully, there is a simple option to stop it.
In other news, if you’re also an Echo user, you may want to read this to know how to avoid common troubles encounter from the device.
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Written by Teejay Boris
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