Users will not even be asked if they want to participate in the project.
The company presented the Amazon Sidewalk project, in which the owners of gadgets Alexa, Echo, and any other that the company has ever released, will distribute the Internet to all neighbors if they do not have it.
By default, all devices will be distributed online from June 8 – many people do not even know that they are participating in a test project. You can opt out with special instructions, but still, a large number of users will be part of the experiment even without consent.
The company plans to create one large Internet network so that devices can work even at a distance from the home Internet. The maximum bandwidth that can be shared is 80 Kbps, which is about 1/40 of the bandwidth needed to transmit good quality video.
Many experts have some doubts about the feasibility and safety of this technology – the risk of hacking Amazon Sidewalk is very high. In general, this can allow intruders to access even what is happening in the room – to listen to conversations or even spy on a video camera. And that’s not all – through the Internet, you can control smart homes, which can affect the infrastructure of entire areas.
The company has not tested this feature before, it immediately tests it on its users. It will be known in a week how the Amazon Sidewalk network will be launched in a week, but some users are already saying that they are not satisfied with the company’s policy.
