Friday Sync-Up: “Alexa, please hack my home.”

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Every Friday, I present a topic or question for our merry band of thinkers, leaders, and pirates to discuss in an open thread. Here is this week’s conversation starter:

Next week, Amazon will automatically enable its Sidewalk program. This will allow Amazon devices — like Ring doorbells and cameras, Alexa smart assistants, etc. — to share their internet connections with one another to form city-wide mesh networks. Customers must opt-out before the June 8th deadline if they don’t want their devices sharing their connections. The company says this new feature will enable a host of capabilities that make their products and services better.

Question: Are you concerned about this new capability? If you have an Amazon device, will you participate or opt-out?

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Comments (7)
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  1. Cole

    I’ll pass. I have no desire to help big tech or the government track people. China should be the glaring warning for anyone not understanding how this can be used against us.

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  2. Dr. Stephen

    Thanks for the heads up! Definitely will opt out. No one needs any information unless I specifically share it!

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  3. Mark Schreiber

    Concerned? Yes. Participate or opt out? Opt out, for sure. I cannot imagine what vulnerabilities this will create now or in the future. "Neat" as tech is, chasing it for its own sake can be foolish. How will this make life better for me, my family and my community, and at what cost? Unless the answer is clearly on the benefit side, better to wait and see how things play out.

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    1. Dan Currell

      Well - I will say on the benefit side, we live in Saint Paul, which is essentially just Minneapolis, and we might formerly have thought of the area as immune to crime. It never was, of course, and now it certainly isn't. The power and potential of surveillance cameras is great - in a lot of directions, ahem - but frankly, they (combined with motion lighting) are by far the best way to keep intruders out of our separate garage and, potentially, house. So - there are real benefits. But for now I think it's a wait-and-see situation.

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  4. Dan Currell

    First reaction was - I don’t have one of these - maybe I should get it.

    Second was - what’s all this data going to be used for in five years when it’s sitting around and there’s good AI and enough compute to easily make sense of it all?

    The concern is with any of a variety of actors globally; I’m not concerned about Amazon, but I don’t think for a minute that their cyber is impenetrable.

    So - this puts my home improvement project list back where it was.

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    1. Jack

      I agree with Dan. What seems safe enough today may be weaponized against me tomorrow (or next year at least). The fact that we have to "cancel it" instead of "requesting it" is concerning as well. I will so no to it as well.

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    Klon Kitchen

    Here's what Amazon says about Sidewalk:

    "Amazon Sidewalk is a shared network that helps devices work better. Operated by Amazon at no charge to customers, Sidewalk can help simplify new device setup, extend the low-bandwidth working range of devices to help find pets or valuables with Tile trackers, and help devices stay online even if they are outside the range of their home wifi. In the future, Sidewalk will support a range of experiences from using Sidewalk-enabled devices, such as smart security and lighting and diagnostics for appliances and tools ... Amazon Sidewalk helps your devices get connected and stay connected. For example, if your Echo device loses its wifi connection, Sidewalk can simplify reconnecting to your router. For select Ring devices, you can continue to receive motion alerts from your Ring Security Cams and customer support can still troubleshoot problems even if your devices lose their wifi connection. Sidewalk can also extend the working range for your Sidewalk-enabled devices, such as Ring smart lights, pet locators or smart locks, so they can stay connected and continue to work over longer distances. Amazon does not charge any fees to join Sidewalk."

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