Sunday, June 6, 2021

Amazon stealing our bandwidth (How to stop it)

Jay Forrest (jayforrest.org); Sheldon S. (jvp.org), Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Dan Goodin of Ars Technica reports, “Amazon devices will soon automatically share your Internet with neighbors.”

Barbara Krasnoff from The Verge explains, “The new network will share a small portion of your bandwidth with your neighbors. I think Dan Goodin blows it out of proportion when he says, “Amazon’s experimental wireless mesh networking turns users into guinea pigs….that leaves your personal privacy and security hanging in the balance.”

To be fair, Amazon has actually been very careful to ensure our personal privacy and security [or so they say. Think of Facebook/FBI's privacy debacles]. See Amazon's white paper.

My issue is that you are not being asked to participate, they are turning it on by default. You have to oft out. Taking bandwidth I am paying for without my permission is stealing. Amazon is wrong to do this. Here is how to opt out:
  1. Open the Alexa app. 
  2. Open More  and select Settings.
  3. Select Account Settings.
  4. Select Amazon Sidewalk.
  5. Turn Amazon Sidewalk On or Off for your account.

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