Amazon customers have one week to opt out of a plan that would turn every Echo speaker and Ring security camera in the US into a shared wireless network, as part of the company’s plan to fix connection problems for its smart home devices.
Wow. I do not own any such devices, but would certainly opt out of that!
Both Echo Dots removed as well as Alexa Apps on tablet & phone. Be sure to remove your skills and deregister the units. You should never have to opt out of this type of “sharing” of resources. This is another reason why I am slowly reducing my Amazon products usages.
We got an Echo dot for Christmas 3yrs ago…we took it out of the box, for all of about 10min, turned it off put it back in the box and it’s in a closet somewhere in the house .
Per @Fred_G 's post I didn’t want to have a needless shooting incident in the home one day.
Still sounds like a trip to the range is in order for you and the Echo. I would never and will never allow a smart Amazon product in my home.
The only real smart product I have is my iPhone and I keep a close eye on it with my trusty hammer always in reach since discharging a firearm in a residential area is a no no where I live;)
What a lovely attempt to move everyone closer to communism.
“From each according to his ability. To each according to his need.”
-Karl Marx
You have excellent internet bandwidth. I need excellent internet bandwidth.
And Jeff Bezos sitting at the head of the Politburo raking in the money.
Followed the link and discovered that “sidewalk” was enabled on my Alexa App.
Was able to disable by following the instructions!
Thanks @OldDude49
Waiting for my wife to get home to opt out on her phone. Opted out on Ring
I’m curious how many devices this actually affects. The article mentions Echos and Dots. What about the cheap Kindle sitting on my bedstand? What about my phone with the Amazon app installed? What about my Roku, with the Prime Video app installed?
Perhaps I’m paranoid, but it seems like the big tech companies have given us plenty of reasons not to trust them.
Thanks, @OldDude49
I just disabled Sidewalk on my Alexa device.
As for my Ring account, I don’t have floodlight and spotlight cams so no need to disable anything at this time.
I got a “smart” phone when my flip phone did not survive an accidental torture test through the washer and dryer. Spent a good deal of time turning off location and disabling or deleting all apps that I anticipated I wouldn’t use. I think it’s now almost as dumb as my old flipper.
Checked my Amazon Music iPhone app. I’ve never enabled Alexa there, and don’t see anything about bandwidth sharing. Kinda doubt it’s possible even. Siri potentially sharing my bandwidth, however, is another thing altogether.
I did not find to switch or button to opt out of Amazon Echo. Help?
Best to opt out of amazon completely.
I wish it were that easy. My family loves to use it.
I think it has to be deactivated through the Alexa App on your phone or tablet per George98 above
The fact that you have to opt-out, not opt-in, sends chills down my spine. I just received, literally last week, an Echo Dot as a gift. It’s still in the box, much too “Big Brother-ish” for me. I think I’ll follow the advice of @Shamrock and take it to the range.
I do have a Ring system at home, with outside cameras and door sensors. Thanks to this fine post I did disable the “Sidewalk” feature. Well done @OldDude49 !
Nothing like just helping yourself to your customers bandwidth by default. Opt OUT? That’s outrageous. Screw jeff bezos.
Hi neighbor, I’m just going to swing by occasionally, and help myself to some of the milk in your fridge… Just let me know if that’s not okay.