That’s right. Starting yesterday, Amazon began using Ring, Alexa and Echo products to take part of your bandwidth and make it available to your neighbors. And they started to do so without your consent and probably without your knowledge. This feature is called “Amazon Sidewalk”, and among other things, Amazon Sidewalk will:

Take a chunk of your bandwidth and give it to others.

Increase toxic electrosmog both indoors and outdoors.

Make our sidewalks more radio frequency polluted so for those already electrically sensitive, even a walk in their own neighborhoods could make them sick;

Increase harm to our pollinators and plants; and

Use your home’s energy to power others’ internet access.

With this new technology comes privacy concerns that could be particularly vexing. Consider the wealth of intimate details Amazon devices are [already] privy to. They see who knocks on our doors, and in some homes they peer into our living rooms. They hear the conversations we’re having with friends and family. They control locks and other security systems in our home.

Extending the reach of all this encrypted data to the sidewalk and living rooms of neighbors requires a level of confidence that’s not warranted for a technology that has never seen widespread testing. Last, let’s not forget who’s providing this new way for everyone to share and share alike. As independent privacy researcher Ashkan Soltani puts it: In addition to capturing everyone’s shopping habits (from amazon.com) and their internet activity (as AWS is one of the most dominant web hosting services)… now they are also effectively becoming a global ISP with a flick of a switch, all without even having to lay a single foot of fiber.

Turning Amazon Sidewalk OFF

Amazon’s decision to make Sidewalk an opt-out service rather than an opt-in one is also telling. The company knows the only chance of the service gaining critical mass is to turn it on by default, so that’s what it’s doing.  Luckily, there is an easy way to opt out, by following these instructions:

1.  Open the Alexa app

2.  Open “More” and select “Settings”

3.  Select “Account Settings”

4.  Select “Amazon Sidewalk” and

5.   Turn Amazon Sidewalk “Off”

Protect Your Health & Privacy, Save Energy

I believe this is a harbinger of things to come, with more and more Big Tech companies trying to secretly shove wireless apps down our throats while trying to impinge on our personal data and privacy.  And of course in so doing, ever increasing our exposure to wireless gadgets that add to the electronic smog within our homes creating a less healthy home.

In short, I urge you to consider turning off this feature today if you want to better protect your Health, better protect your Privacy, and save Energy.