Amazon’s Echo Devices Are Officially Sharing Your Internet

According to the latest news, Amazon’s Echo devices has news for you. They are officially sharing your internet connection.

Amazon launched a shared low-bandwidth network under the name Amazon Sidewalk. It became eligible on Ring devices in 2020 and will start working on eligible Echo devices Tuesday.

The e-commerce giant announced that the Amazon Sidewalk network could extend the low-bandwidth working range of devices. But, remarkably, it is ultimately helping them stay better connected to the internet.

According to Amazon’s website, these devices share a small portion of your internet bandwidth. Afterward, the system pools it all together in order to provide these services to you and your neighbors. Remarkably, when more neighbors participate, the network becomes stronger.

An Amazon spokesperson announced that Sidewalk enables users to continue to receive motion alerts from Ring Security Cams even if a device loses its Wi-Fi connection. Moreover, the company says clients can use Sidewalk to control their Ring smart lights at the end of a driveway or to track down a lost pet.

An e-commerce company even published a privacy and security whitepaper to ease some consumer concerns about data sharing. The firm declares that it carefully designed privacy protections into how Sidewalk collects, stores, and uses metadata.

But, it’s essential to mention that users have to opt-out if they do not want to partake. The Verge announced that users can disable Amazon Sidewalk by going into the setting section in their Amazon Alexa app.

Devices that Work as Sidewalk Bridges

Let’s see a list of devices that work as Sidewalk Bridges. According to the e-commerce giant, these are devices that provide connections to Amazon Sidewalk.

Those devices are Ring Floodlight Cam (2019), Ring Spotlight Cam Wired (2019), Ring Spotlight Cam Mount (2019), Echo (3rd gen and newer), Echo Dot (3rd gen and newer), Echo Dot for Kids (3rd gen and newer), Echo Plus (all generations), Echo Dot with Clock (3rd gen and newer), Echo Show (2nd gen), Echo Show 5, 8, 10 (all generations), Echo Spot, Echo Studio, Echo Input, Echo Flex.