I’m no fan of being opted into things, even things that I agree with. So, while I believe Amazon Sidewalk is ultimately a good thing, I can understand why people want to opt out.
Must read: I just found my lost AirTag… you’ll never guess where it went
If you want some background, you can get there here and here, but the short version is that Amazon is going to take a small part of your internet bandwidth and use it to create a shared network that other Amazon devices — such as Echo devices, Ring Floodlights, and Spotlight Cams — can connect to.
The idea is that if someone’s internet goes down or a device is in a spot where your Wi-Fi coverage is poor, your Amazon devices can tap into a ‘free’ low-bandwidth distributed network to continue to receive things like notifications.
You donate up to 500MB a month in exchange for access.
The idea, as I said, is a good one.
Problem is, Amazon has decided to opt people into this, rather than given them the options to opt in themselves (I wonder why…?).
Fortunately, opting out is easy. Well, if you know how.
Don’t think it’s a worthwhile exchange? Here’s how you opt out:
- Find up your Alexa app and fire it up
- Tap More and then Settings
- Tap Account Settings
- Tap Amazon Sidewalk
- Now you can turn Amazon Sidewalk on or off
Note that this is currently only available in the US, so this feature won’t be present in other territories.
