AMAZON SIDEWALK NOW LEVER-AGES TILE
Sidewalk, what now? I hear several of you cry. Sidewalk is Amazon's new mesh network the company announced back in September 2019. The network utilizes Bluetooth and Amazon smart-home devices to create a series of mini mesh networks that allow your devices to stay connected further away from your router. Devices could even stay online (up to half a mile depending on different factors) if your Wi-Fi goes down. Be under no illusions, the Sidewalk network is already incredibly precise - just like Apple's AirTag's are at finding things. With around 1.6 billion active Apple devices that are part of the Find My network, you'd expect Apple to be able to find pretty much anything on the Earth. Sounds great, right? Yes and no. There are downsides.
Amazon is partnering with Tile, smart trackers like the Apple AirTags, and Level, smart locks, and a raft of others will no doubt follow over time. There are several good use cases for Sidewalk and networks like it (example: CareBand), but it is also important to avoid thinking this technology is issue-less and fluffy. There are some considerable privacy and data concerns.
The biggest issue? It's on by default. The WSJ dubbed this move' permissionless innovation', but a quote from Ben Wood from CCS Insight (in WSJ) caught my eye:
Better connectivity options is no bad thing, but it would be naive to think these networks can’t (and won’t) be abused. The official announcment (which interestingly doesn’t mention anything about the controversy magnet, Ring) is here.
Just as one intrusion goes, another enters the fray. Is Amazon alone in this push? No. Is Amazon's reach substantial and, by proxy, dangerous? Almost certainly. The ability for just a few connected devices to map and infer information is scarily small. Like, one or two devices to blanket a city. The power this - and other ad hoc networks like it have is impressive and terrifying considering the history of privacy invasions and records of the companies being discussed. Sidewalk is encrypted and only accessible by the devices consumers choose, and data is automatically deleted every 24 hours to protect privacy. Amazon has released a security White Paper ahead of the inevitable 'rut-ro/be scared' press cycles. Aprapo of nothing, the opt-out for Sidewalk is buried four menu's deep…
Consumers are lazy; most won't turn this off, so it's almost inevitable this will impact every single reader's life whether you want to or not. Networks like this can be incredibly powerful for users and the companies that control them. Moves like this make Amazon incredibly powerful even if they never see one ounce of data as utility locks in users into ecosystems (case study: Apple).
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