Amazon Devices will Soon Share Your Internet Bandwidth with Your Neighbors. Here’s How You Opt Out.

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By: Jill Mills Posted: Jun 2, 2021 Updated: Aug 10, 2022

We all love Amazon, but what they are about to do, I’m not sure I love at all. Amazon will soon start sharing your internet with your neighbors and those around you. Keep reading to learn how to opt-out.

Amazon Sidewalk

Amazon Sidewalk is the new Amazon thing which is basically another way of saying they will steal small bits of your internet bandwidth to share with others.

Amazon will also automatically enroll you in this program.

It will be for any Amazon devices, Echo Dots, etc. Even Ring security devices!

What Does This Mean?

What Amazon Sidewalk will do is automatically share your internet connection with your neighbors and vice versa. All without sharing passwords.

Here is a little snippet of what Amazon entails this new program to do:

“Amazon Sidewalk is a shared network that helps devices like Amazon Echo devices, Ring Security Cams, outdoor lights, motion sensors, and Tile trackers work better at home and beyond the front door. When enabled, Sidewalk can unlock unique benefits for your device, support other Sidewalk devices in your community, and even locate pets or lost items.

Amazon Sidewalk creates a low-bandwidth network with the help of Sidewalk Bridge devices including select Echo and Ring devices. These Bridge devices share a small portion of your internet bandwidth which is pooled together to provide these services to you and your neighbors. And when more neighbors participate, the network becomes even stronger.” 

Amazon also stated that the Sidewalk feature will have a lot of layers of privacy and security to protect your personal information, but will allow users the option to turn off Sidewalk if they don’t want to participate.

This program will begin on June 8, 2021. Thankfully, we have the option to opt out. Here’s how.

Amazon Devices with Sidewalk

Here are all the devices that support Amazon Sidewalk

• 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 Dot with Clock (3rd gen and newer)
• Echo Plus (all generations)
• Echo Show (all models and generations)
• Echo Spot
• Echo Studio
• Echo Input
• Echo Flex
• Tile

How to Opt-Out

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Open More and select Settings.
3. Select Account Settings.
4. Select Amazon Sidewalk.
5. Turn Amazon Sidewalk On or Off for your account.

Seems pretty simple to opt-out! Just make sure to disable it before June 8th!