Amazon customers have been given
very little time to opt out of
a new Amazon program known
as Amazon Sidewalk.
Now, what Amazon Sidewalk would do
is essentially allow
your neighbors to mooch off of
your wireless Internet.
It's a way of connecting users
through this mesh system using
very, very slow Internet speeds or
low bandwidth in order to connect
and set up various Amazon related
gadgets and gizmos, right?
So I'll give you a few examples,
as Ars Technica notes in their
headline on the story, Amazon
devices will soon automatically
share your Internet with neighbors.
Amazon's experimental wireless mesh
networking turns users into guinea
pigs.
And you have until June 8th,
by the way, to opt out of this.
If you don't opt out of it,
you will automatically be enrolled
in this program.
And there are some significant
potential downsides to it, which
I'll get to it in just a second.
Now, Amazon's Sidewalk involves
the company's devices being used as
a springboard to build city-wide
mesh networks.
Now, they're not doing this in
order to expand Internet
accessibility to people who might
not be able to afford it.
They're doing this because rather
than maybe contributing to taxes
and ensuring that we have publicly
funded Internet, so
everyone has connectivity.
They've decided no we want to make
sure that people who might not
have the best Internet service,
maybe even people who can't afford
Internet themselves are able to
mooch off of their neighbor's
Internet through this system that
we're setting up.
Because remember,
Amazon has a vested interest in
ensuring that people A,
can buy their products and connect
their products to the Internet, and
B, are able to use the Internet for
their own consumer habits.
And that's not what this
is about, right?
But this is the beginning phases
of that.
And that's what my prediction is.
So to give you more details,
the feature works by creating
a low-bandwidth network using smart
home devices such as Amazon Echoes
and Ring security cameras.
A new Echo can set itself up by
using a neighbor's WiFi or
a security camera can continue to
send motion alerts even if its
connection to the Internet is
disrupted by piggybacking on
the connection of another camera
across the street.
So what's crazy about this is just
how opaque this program is,
how there hasn't really been
much attention given to it.
So consumers know what they're
getting themselves into.
So consumers have enough time to
opt out should they find this
program problematic.
And I certainly think that there's
some significant down sides to it.
Other devices that don't need
a high bandwidth connection,
such as smart lights,
pet locators or smart locks,
can use Sidewalk all the time.
So look, as I mentioned,
people don't really
have that much time to opt out.
You have until June 8th, and
if you don't opt out by then you're
automatically enrolled in this
program.
Now, once you're automatically
enrolled, you can still opt out.
But it's important for
people to know about this program
to begin with so they can make that
decision for themselves.
The problem is, Amazon hasn't
really been very transparent about
it, it's a very opaque program.
And even though they have a Q&A
section on their website in order
to explain what this program is,
it still leaves
people with many questions.
So users can disable sidewalk in
the settings section of Alexa or
Ring apps, but
have until June 8th to do so.
After that if they have taken no
action at all, their devices will
become so called Sidewalk Bridges.
So I want to take a quick moment
just to help you all out if you are
interested in opting out of this.
So here's how you can do it,
you just open the Alexa app,
you open More and select Settings.
Selecting Account Settings,
selecting Amazon Sidewalk and
then at that point you can turn
Amazon Sidewalk Off.
Now, let's get to the potential
downsides of this.
First of all, there are clearly
some potential security concerns
because if let's say hackers get
even more sophisticated with their
methods or if there are viruses
that can affect one gadget.
If you have multiple gadgets
connected through wireless
Internet, could that indicate
that one household that has a virus
could then
spread that virus to its neighbor.
Which is of course,
piggybacking off of the Internet
connectivity of the original
person who got the virus, right?
So there are security concerns in
that regard.
Some have also brought up some
potential privacy concerns.
So that of course has always been
an issue when it comes to Silicon
Valley tech companies and the way
they not only operate in terms of
collecting data but also how
they sell data to third parties.
They've been opaque about that
type of practice as well.
And then the final thing I want to
get to is, how this kind of plays a
role in the ongoing share economy.
So, when you think about the share
economy, consider businesses
like Airbnb,
Uber, Lyft, that requires people to
use their own private property in
order to make money.
So in the case of Uber,
you're driving your own private car
in order to make money.
In the case of Airbnb,
you're renting out your space to
make money.
In this case, though,
you're not making any money but
you are allowing Amazon to use your
wireless Internet in order to help
connect other people to Amazon
devices, right?
So it's just another example of
a highly profitable private company
using basically private Americans
and what they're spending money on
in order to build their
own business, right?
So they're building a new program,
a new business off the backs of
their own customers who,
of course, aren't getting
paid anything for it.
They're just putting themselves in
a situation, in many cases
unwittingly where this
highly profitable private company
that pays nothing in federal taxes,
uses their Internet in
order to improve the connectivity
of other consumers.
I think that's an issue, it's
an ongoing issue that continues to
devolve further, starts off with
systems and services like Airbnb.
And now it's gotten to a point
where really there's no upside to
you as the consumer.
But there is quite a bit of upside
to Amazon that does not want to pay
more in taxes,
which could expand broadband
Internet to everyone publicly.
And certainly has no interest
in paying for Internet expansion
themselves so they don't have to
freeload off of their own customers
in order to make this program work.
And in the future,
my prediction is that this will
expand to something even bigger.
Right now this is about low
bandwidth.
This is about connecting things
like the Amazon Echo products or
that doorknob product,
what is that thing called again?
The Ring security cameras for
instance.
But in the future if this type of
behavior is allowed to
move forward,
how is this going to expand to
allowing people to use up more of
your wireless Internet through this
mesh system in order to do let's
say online shopping on Amazon?
And then one other thing some of
you might be wondering, well,
if my neighbors are able to use my
wireless Internet and I have data
caps, my Internet service provider
has data caps for my service,
does that affect me in any way?
And the answer is yes,
it absolutely does.
In fact, Amazon answered that very
question and
said when you share your bridges
connection with Sidewalk, total
monthly data used by Sidewalk per
account is capped at 500 megabytes.
Which is the equivalent of
streaming about ten minutes of high
definition video.
So that might sound negligible that
might not be a big deal to most
people, but it is going to use up
some of your data.
And some people might not
like that,
might have some issues with that.
And the fact that Amazon hasn't
made it abundantly clear or
easy for people to opt out,
I think only adds insult to injury
with this situation.
So not only do these companies get
away with paying nothing in federal
taxes, even though they're highly
profitable.
But they're looking for ways to use
the services that you pay for
in order to continue building their
highly profitable businesses.
So it's just another example of
privatizing gains and socializing
losses because you're paying for
the Internet not Amazon.