A Fine Mesh

      If you have a device in your house that responds when you say "Alexa," then you need to know about Amazon Sidewalk.

La la la the people in your neighborhood

     Jeff Bezos wants his company to be dominant in the market for the Internet of Things, i.e. all the little gadgets in and around your home that connect to the internet. Having conquered the "smart" speaker market with his Echo Dots and such, Bezos now wants to extend his reach from your living room out into your neighborhood. 

     Amazon Sidewalk uses a slice of your internet bandwidth to create a "mesh network" with all compatible devices within a range of about half a mile. Your Echo Dot could might be in contact with every other Echo Dot on your block, along with every other Alexa-enabled devices nearby: Amazon Ring security systems, Amazon Fire TV Sticks, the hands-free Alexa services in cars parked outside, smart lights out by the hedges...

Amazon Ring, with camera.

     It's a nifty technical trick that could deliver all kinds of convenience to customers. It's also, say cybersecurity experts, a privacy nightmare waiting to happen. 

     Amazon says it triple-encrypts all data passing through Amazon Sidewalk. This may not mean much in the long run. The more devices there are on any given network, the more chances malicious actors will have to break into it. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and a mesh network is only as secure as its least-protected gadget.

     Even if Sidewalk were to prove utterly immune to attack, it would disturb privacy advocates, since every single device on a mesh network would still be funneling personal data back to Jeff Bezos' servers. It used to be unthinkable that people would willingly let a mega-corporation install surveillance devices in their homes. Now Amazon intends to surveil entire neighborhoods at once, the better to sell us more stuff. 

     Amazon Sidewalk began rolling out in November. Customers with Amazon smart devices will be automatically enrolled in the program; anyone who doesn't wish to participate must deliberately opt out.