A new feature from Amazon is raising privacy concerns.
That's because it wants to share your WiFi signal with your neighbors, and some homeowners are saying that's one step too far.
Amazon is coming into our homes more every day, like it or not.
Remember the controversy two years ago over Amazon Key, where an Amazon delivery person gets the code to your front door to leave a package inside your home?
That's nothing compared to concerns over Amazon's new Sidewalk service, now launching.
If you and your neighbors have Ring video doorbells and cameras, Amazon will share your WiFi bandwidth with everyone on the street, to make sure everyone has a strong signal.
It would create a mesh of Ring cameras.
But privacy groups are sounding the alarm.
Business Insider says "Amazon faces a privacy backlashfor its Sidewalk feature, which turns Alexa devices into neighborhood WiFi networks that owners have to opt out of."
The opt-out feature has privacy advocates most concerned.
The non-profit Mozilla Foundation-- which created the Firefox web browser, -- doesn't like that sidewalk will be automatically turned on when you buy a Ring or Echo.
"That's not a practice we like," Mozilla's Jen Caltrider told us.
We like it when people are given a choice to opt in to services that might be sharing their personal data."
Your neighbor sharing your WiFi?
So from the doesn't that stink file, the fact that you may be sharing your WiFi with your neighbor and not even know it.
Amazon insists there will be no spying between homes: Your neighbor can't watch your camera or listen in, or see what websites you visit.
But knowing he's on your WiFi might be a little creepy for many of us, despite Amazon's assurances.
Still don't like it? Check your Echo and Ring settings starting in January, 2021, and turn the feature off so you don't waste your money.
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