Amazon customers who have Echo and Ring devices will automatically opt in to the new “sidewalk” feature, which the company says will make devices work better by sharing some of the users’ Internet connections.
The Amazon sidewalk will take a small chunk of the user’s WiFi bandwidth so the devices, even devices owned by someone else, can work long distances, the company said in an email to affected customers.
Holiday sales include U.S. Delivery scams in are 427%. Here are some tips to avoid them
Provides details of the process on the launch page for the Amazon feature.
“Amazon builds a low-bandwidth network using sidewalk sidewalk bridge devices, including echo and ring-selecting devices,” the company said.
“These bridge devices share a small portion of your Internet bandwidth which is pooled together to provide these services to you and your neighbors. And when more neighbors participate, the network gets stronger, ”Amazon continued.
Ticker | Security | The last | Change | Change% |
---|---|---|---|---|
AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | Held at 3,162.58 | -24.15 | -0.76% |
The new sidewalk network isn’t live yet, but the company says it will launch in the U.S. later this year. Will be turned into
Facility Existing U.S. Will be automatically enabled for customers, although Amazon said users will not be able to select the feature by disabling it on their device.
Amazon workers, community members protect Jeff Bezos’ NYC home outside for security
However, some tech experts expressed concern about privacy.
“There’s a real privacy concern … and there’s a lot of privacy concerns … but those are still very early days,” said Chris Davis, executive editor of consumer technology website SlashGear.
Fiser Ian Thor or Ranton-Trump, chief information security officer at SIGX, a company specializing in threat intelligence, told Forbes that the automated opt-in was “very problematic from a privacy standpoint.”
Click here to read more on Fox Business
“The on-default approach is not customer-friendly,” Thornton-Trump said. “‘No one rides for free on my WiFi,’ especially the multi-billion dollar giant corporation.”