Amazon is at it again, making us opt out of concerning things with barely a by your leave before they create and run them. In this case, the new thing is called Amazon Sidewalk. Here is how Amazon explains Sidewalk. Here is how ARSTechnica explains it. Neither thrills me with privacy joy.
Here’s the thing, if Amazon would prepare us by telling us about the new thing that is sharing our bandwidth and could theoretically cause privacy problems, that would be one thing. However, the deadline to opt-out is not long from now (June 8th, 2021) and this is the first I have heard of Sidewalk. This means that if Amazon tried to warn me, it failed to do so in a way that I noticed. And I notice privacy stuff.
Anyway, I am not much for being experimented upon when it comes to my privacy. I absolutely choose to give away my privacy for certain things, as does anyone who has a smartphone in their pocket or a smart device in their home. But I like to be aware of and make my choices willingly. As a result, I quickly opted out of this new thing. Might I be willing to turn Sidewalk on in the future? Probably not. This sort of thing may be very secure. Or it may be buggy. How can I possibly know? And why would I trust something Amazon has clearly not warned me properly about?
If you want to disable Amazon’s Sidewalk, it seems to be very straightforward. Here is a screen capture of Amazon’s instructions, which you may also find here.
