Amazon Sidewalk

Do you have an Amazon Echo or Alexa device? If so, once launched, you may unknowingly be part of what Amazon is calling ‘Sidewalk‘. Amazon’s aim to create ‘smart neighborhoods‘ with low-bandwidth IoT networks lets your smart home stretch beyond Wi-Fi range.

Amazon says it uses a small fraction of your home’s Wi-Fi bandwidth to pass wireless low-energy Bluetooth and 900MHz radio signals between compatible devices across far greater distances than Wi-Fi is capable of on its own — in some cases, as far as half a mile.

How does it work?

BLE is used for short range benefits such as simplifying new device set up or helping your device reconnect at short range when it loses its Wi-Fi connection. “Sidewalk uses the 900MHz spectrum to extend the low-bandwidth working range of devices, and help devices stay online even if they are outside the range of their home Wi-Fi.” (Crist, 2020)

“As a crowdsourced, community benefit, Amazon Sidewalk is only as powerful as the trust our customers place in us to safeguard customer data,”

Amazon, 2020

Are there advantages or disadvantages?

As with most new technologies and products, there are always concerns over security and privacy.

By joining Sidewalk, you are giving Amazon more personal information than you currently are which you may not entirely be comfortable with. There is an option to opt out of Amazon Sidewalk if you choose.

On the security side, Amazon says their server will authenticate your data and route it to the right place, but the company says it won’t read or collect it. Amazon also says that it deletes the information used to route each packet of data every 24 hours, and adds that it uses automatically rolling device IDs to ensure that data travelling over the Sidewalk network can’t be tied to specific customers.

To read the full article, by CNET, click here.