Insurance was a good call. People need to be careful of where we headed. I wouldnât be surprised if peoples car insurance went up after Amazon told their insurance they are speeding. Or spend time parked in a dangerous area. Or those teen insurance rates where you can only drive to school and work âAlexa determined that was a lie!â
1 Like
I don't really want to get into non-technical issues, but in my opinion a terrorist's phone should be cracked open like an egg as long as there are sufficient safeguards in place to prevent abuse.
And who knows the real circumstances around the FBI "shove it" claim. If there was concrete evidence some terrorist was about to detonate a nuke and the info on their phone might help stop that, do you really think Apple would say no? I certainly hope not. If that ever happened, Apple would cease to exist and the government would enact laws which would be far damaging to privacy in the long run.
Trust is largely subjective. Being (or appearing to be) trustworthy is good for business, but these companies exist to make a profit, and we choose to do business with them, or not.
That's the trick isn't it? What's sufficient? Who decides sufficient? Who gets to decide who's requests are "important enough" to use the back door or not?
But we digress. None of that has anything to do with Amazon Sidewalk. Sorry for contributing to the OTness.
Anyway, I have sidewalk turned off. I don't need the feature for my uses, so if Amazon wants it for other users then they can pay me for it. Otherwise they can bugger off.
4 Likes
Sure, there are ramifications to all this and not all of them are necessarily good, But in the context of this discussion, I don't see Sidewalk significantly adding to the privacy issues.
If you're just opting-in, all you're doing is enabling a stationary Echo or Ring device to act as an access point, and the location of that device is already known. So you haven't compromised anything,
If you don't use any mobile Sidewalk devices, how could your privacy be compromised?
Trust is something that is earned and in general I would not trust any for-profit company to put my concerns or well-being above their own. I wouldn't go as far as saying "all companies are amoral" though. That's way too broad of a brush.
Yes, I think they would. Apple has made a name (trillion dollars) on privacy.
Here more there. Basically they âprovedâ they canât even get user data if they wanted to and I for one believe them. And no, I donât think they should assist law enforcement, thatâs how stuff creeps up. Ok a nuke, fine, then what about a big bomb but not nuclear? What about a mass shooter? What about the mass shooters wifeâs phone? What about my phone that the shooter asked me to use when he randomly passed me. Should they also be able to get Amazon to show my location data, just in case? Itâs really one of those things I see as all or nothing or the gray area will slowly expand until is a simple search warrant will be enough to unlock a phone. Then search warrants will be issued on duis because âevidence of drinking is on thereâ
All valid concerns. But insurance companies are already basing their rates on your credit score, which ought to be illegal in my opinion.
But what about Google Maps or Waze, or all the parking meter apps, or Sunpass and Ezpass, or all the cars that have OnStar or FordConnect or similar cellular connected systems? They all have access to tons of data right now that they could sell to insurance companies.
Sidewalk is only theoretical at present.
This is EXACTLY why the HomePod is $100 and echos are even free a lot. Apple makes a hefty profit on the hardware, Amazon loses $ on hardware than sells data. That new ring doorbell is $59 with a free echo. They arenât turning profit on that. Just wait until Apple makes a doorbell, itâll be $350 for the âsameâ hardware, minus the whole sharing your network with strangers
The difference is Amazon will sell this data. You canât buy on star data
On google maps, I agree. Itâs been proven already they sell that data, thatâs why I use Apple maps
Thanks for the info, they should definitely send an email to all users about this or even better disable it by default and let people opt in like others have said.
2 Likes
They did, back in November 2020. The email even included the instructions on how to disable Sidewalk.
1 Like
As soon as Amazon pays me an amount I agree to, then they can use my network and devices to build out their service.
Until then, nope.
This whole idea and system is BS to me. I am adamantly against it.
2 Likes
Same it reminds me of the solar panel plan my house came with.
Edit: explaination. So when I bought this house it had really expensive solar panel setup, I THINK $100k. The previous owners leased it somehow and basically defaulted. So when I bought the house the company said âjust keep them, our gift to youâ only they keep 96% of the energy for 30 years.
I know itâs not the same but I get the same type of vibe. Iâm getting a marginal benefit to have ugly solar panels so your company benefits, and Iâm paying you? Shouldnât you be paying me? Iâm getting $100k solar panels free right? Well no, in 30 years those panels will be worth $3k man. So I gave them 30 years of free energy so I can save a a hundred a month when Iâm 66. No thanks
2 Likes
I take it this is the US only? Nothing in my Ring app here in Canada as of yet.
Iâm in the minority I guess. I actually welcome this idea and have it turned on. I thought about it, but the more I read and saw itâs just sensational media making this sound far worse than it is. I have no problem enabling this on my devices.
1 Like
ok, thanks for the info, but they should send a reminder, how many non techy users (and tech savvy including myself) won't/don't remember, dismissed the announcement, just did not read it because of all the SPAM we get or whatever reason. about this new "feature". I'm guessing that one of the last TOS updates included this and no one will be able to get this reversed in court or something else.
We are letting these tech giants have way to much power over our lives in my opinion. I some company could just bring out a voice assistant that does not have to be connected to work!!!
1 Like
There have been some reports that people who disabled the option early had the option re-enabled via a later update - it may have happened to me looking back at some of my old posts in November. I could have sworn I did.. but not certain.
It's worth checking out even if you think you disabled it..
I hear you. Of course, we all have chosen to put these devices in our home. We all have the choice to not buy them, and not have them in our home. They are 100% a luxury item that is not required for normal, healthy human life.
Apple just announced this week that they are adding more local voice capabilities to Siri. They also mentioned that soon, your voice recordings will never leave your house, as they are commuted to consumer privacy. Perhaps Apple is an option, however it will definitely cost more.
3 Likes
âReportsâ like that sound as though thereâs just enough/not enough detail that it could be true, or fake newsâŚ
2 Likes
I turned Sidewalk off back in November, and it has stayed off.
3 Likes
Yes I agree that's why I was cautious about writing it.. I usually opt out immediately of such things when I find out about them otherwise I forget. This particular time my sidewalk was enabled but I knew about it back in November so likely would have disabled then of course I'm easily distracted so totally could have missed doing it.
1 Like
