Sidewalk is a US-only Amazon networking technology that helps keep smart home devices connected to Wi-Fi, such as echo speakers and ring cameras. It can also detect nearby trackers, such as tiles. Arguably, however, Amazon sometimes shares your bandwidth with neighbors to do this. Even if you believe in the company’s security assurance, you may not appreciate the extra bandwidth costs in principle. Here’s how to opt-out of Amazon Sidewalk in a few small steps
Related: All you need to know about Amazon Alexa
Quick answer
In the Alexa app for Android or iOS, navigate More> Settings> Account Settings> Amazon Footwalk. You can toggle the sidewalk in its entirety or just its “community search” features to identify things like tile tracker.
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How to opt-out from Amazon Sidewalk
The easiest way to get off the Amazon sidewalk is through Alexa app:
- Select More Tab, then Settings.
- To like Account settingsFollows Amazon sidewalk.
- Flip the main toggle to disable the sidewalk.
- If you want sidewalk networking benefits, but don’t want ping tracking devices to help, keep the original toggle on, then tap Community Search To control that sub-service.
If you have a PC or Mac, you can do the same thing on your own Content and device choice On the internet.
Read more: Amazon, Apple, and Google’s Smart Home Privacy Policy
FAQs
If you turn this feature on, the following devices work known as the Amazon Sidewalk Bridge:
- Echo (third generation and newer)
- Echo Dot (third generation and newer)
- Eco Plus (all generations)
- Echo Show (2nd Generation)
- Echo Show 5, 8, 10 (All Generations)
- Echo spot
- Eco Studio
- Echo input
- Eco Flex
- Ring Video Doorbell Pro
- Ring Floodlight Cam (2019)
- Ring Spotlight Cam Wired (2019)
- Ring Spotlight Cam Mount (2019)
According to Amazon, speeds do not exceed 80Kbps, and the total cost is limited to 500MB per month.
You can’t, at least not without advanced technical skills than the average person. This is the result of Amazon’s privacy policy, to keep users anonymous.
Sidewalk bridges create a shared network based on “Bluetooth, 900 MHz spectrum and other frequencies”, as Amazon explains. The more bridges there are in an area, the better.
Location data is based on footpath bridges, but roughly, probably within a block. That’s enough to let someone in the general vicinity of a tracker know.
Probably. If you find an assortment of Echo and / or Ring devices, Footwalk may prevent them from turning off Wi-Fi or even extending their functional range. If you only have a single Echo device, or everything is already tightly connected to Wi-Fi, you won’t see any benefits. You do not need to enable sidewalks to find tiles in your own home
