Amazon Sidewalk goes live in the US soon: Here’s how to opt-out
Amazon Sidewalk, the company’s crowdsourced mesh networking program, will be activated in the US next week. However, if you own an Amazon device and don’t want to be part of it, you only have a few days to log out.
Amazon devices automatically register for the program unless users specifically go to their settings menu to withdraw it. This includes devices from the Alexa series, the Echo line, the Ring family and other smart home devices.
Sidewalk uses these devices as the nodes that form the cornerstones of a crowdsourced Amazon mesh network. The service uses Bluetooth connections and other frequency bands with a network speed limited to 80 kbit / s. A data cap of 500 MB per month is also standard.
Amazon plan for sidewalk
Amazon’s great design for sidewalk is simple. The free service allows the company to easily expand the coverage and connectivity of smart home devices beyond a Wi-Fi network. “For example, if your Echo device loses its Wi-Fi connection, Sidewalk can make it easy to reconnect to your router,” he explains. “For select Ring devices, you can continue to receive motion alerts from your Ring security cameras and customer support can still troubleshoot issues even if your devices lose their Wi-Fi connection.”
While Amazon provides documentation (h / t Ars Technica) Regarding the usage of the service, the encryption used and the privacy of the users, it is likely that many users will not be too enthusiastic about the concept. Some may find it useful. If you do not want to participate, you have to visit the settings menu of the Alexa app.
How to turn off Amazon Sidewalk
Fortunately, turning off Amazon Sidewalk is easy enough. In order to do this:
- Go to the Alexa app on your device.
- to open More and hit the settings
- Choose Account settings
- Choose Amazon sidewalk
- Turn on Amazon Sidekick out
The sidewalk will go live in the US starting June 8th. Amazon has not yet published any availability plans for other regions.
