Amazon Sidewalk is a service that uses a small amount of your home WiFi bandwidth to enable other Amazon devices within half a mile to connect to the cloud via Bluetooth, even if those devices belong to other people. According to Amazon, this is to improve device connectivity in the neighborhood. For instance, let’s say your dog runs away, but there’s an Amazon Tile on his collar. The device would lose connectivity once it got far enough away from your WiFi router. But if your neighbors all have Amazon devices, their Echos or Rings could help Amazon locate your dog.
However, there are privacy and ethical concerns. While Amazon has high privacy measures in place, allowing strangers to use your device to connect to Amazon's cloud without your knowledge can be unsettling. Moreover, Amazon is using your internet bill to pay for a private network they can profit from without owning it or paying any expenses, which raises ethical issues.
Although the amount of bandwidth used by Amazon Sidewalk is negligible for most people, those who live in rural areas or have a data usage cap may face overage charges. Amazon Sidewalk is enabled by default, even if you purchased your device before it was released. You will need to disable it manually if you do not want Amazon to use your home WiFi in this way.
