If you've heard about Amazon Sidewalk in this past week, it's probably through an article that explains how you should opt out of the new feature that goes live on June 8. "Amazon plans to share your internet with neighbours" proclaims one headline. But what is Amazon Sidewalk? And why did Amazon think it was a good idea to have owners of Amazon Echos and Ring cameras automatically enrolled?

Amazon Sidewalk is a mesh network. It turns some of the connected devices you already own into a network gateway. Now it's not a Wi-Fi gateway. It's using the 900 Mhz frequency range, which we call the LoRa network. T

Why would it do this? Well Amazon wants to enable more features for those connected devices around your home and out in your yard. Yes, maybe even out on the Sidewalk. It wants to help you track down your lost items that have a connected Tile device on them. It could even help you find a lost pet, or maybe even a person with dementia that's in your care. You could also use it to control your devices at home, even when your internet service is disconnected.

The security and privacy concerns are real. But the big picture is a bit more complicated than what some of these articles might have you believe. To work through it all, I have two guests with me today on Tech Insights. We are joined by friend of the show Alexandre Blanc. He's a cyber security expert and a virtual CISO for hire We are also joined by Info-Tech security analyst Isaac Kinsella.

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Tech InsightsBy Info-Tech Research GroupFeb 15, 2021