Amazon announced its controversial “Sidewalk” platform nearly two years ago, but most of you probably missed the announcement and the uproar it caused as we were consequently distracted by the mother of all distractions in 2020. Now that we are all starting to stumble into the daylight like hermits emerging from a cave, Amazon is taking advantage of our befuddlement and online shopping addictions to roll out Sidewalk for realsies. On June 8th 2021, unless you specifically opt-out, your Amazon devices like Ring doorbells and security cameras, and the various smart-speaker/screen devices like Dot and Echo, will be automatically enrolled in Amazon’s ambitious effort to bring better network connectivity to your neighborhood. But what is it actually doing?
What is Sidewalk and why should you care?
In a nutshell, Amazon is leveraging the absolutely gigantic install base of Echos, Dots, Rings and Tiles to create what amounts to a vast mesh network. Depending on your training and professional interests, your reaction to this may vary from the “Awesome, maybe my Ring doorbell won’t keep falling off the internet,” (average homeowner reaction) to “This seems like a very bad idea,” (average security/technology consultant reaction). If you were concerned about Sidewalk bogarting your bandwidth, according their specs, it should be skimming a very small amount off the top which, unless you are on very constrained bandwidth (DSL is still the only choice in many neighborhoods believe it or not!), should not even be noticeable. From a security standpoint, Amazon seems to have its head on straight, again at least on paper, about how they are keeping the data transmissions encrypted and separate from your data. Huge caveat on this one – just because a bunch of engineers say something is safe now, does not make it so forever, as we have seen numerous network standards get dismantled and abandoned as dangerous flaws are discovered.
The big concern should be what else Amazon will be doing on the Sidewalk network. In case you hadn’t guessed it, they will be gathering data. An absolute monstrous amount of data on thousands and thousands of households, neighborhoods, camera feeds, pet walking routes, delivery times, recipe requests, song playlists, etc. All of it tagged with geolocation and numerous other telemetry points that give Amazon (and its data customers) an absolutely staggering market advantage. Depending on your leanings and privacy concerns, this may be of no big concern, or perhaps you’ve decided that Amazon gets enough of your dollars already and as such are not deserving of any more of your data than you’ve already sacrificed on the online shopping altar. If this is the case, then disabling Sidewalk is as simple as (wait for it) using your Alexa app to turn it off. Yes, this is like using the stones to destroy the stones. At least you can just delete the Alexa app after installing it to turn off Sidewalk. Until our government decides it’s time to regulate business use of our private data, it will be up to the average household to draw the line in the ongoing privacy war. Which side will you be on?