Speaker 1: If you have an Amazon echo or bring security device, chances are you've been automatically opted into Amazon sidewalk since it recently launched. If you haven't heard of this new feature, go to C net's main YouTube channel and check out our explainer video on what it is and why people might be a little bit concerned. And if you're one of those people, don't worry today. I'm gonna walk you through how to turn off this feature for good.
Speaker 1: Since the sidewalk's feature was automatically turned on for all [00:00:30] compatible devices, you'll have to go in and manually disable it to do this. Open the Alexa app on your phone, tap more in the bottom, right corner of the screen, tap settings, and then account settings then hit Amazon sidewalk and disable it. Okay. Now that that is turned off. Let's talk really quickly about why everyone is disabling. This feature. Basically Amazon sidewalk is a shared network. That'll help Amazon echo devices, ring security cameras, outdoor lights, motion [00:01:00] sensors, and now we even tile trackers to work better in your home and even past your front door. There's also the ability to share a sidewalk bridge location with others in your neighborhood. This feature is called community finding, and it doesn't share your exact home address, but it does share an approximate location. Now this feature wasn't automatically enabled, but if you want to double check, open the Alexa out and tap more in the bottom, right corner of the screen, tap settings, and then account settings, then tap Amazon sidewalk and community [00:01:30] finding here you can enable or disable the future.
Speaker 1: Now the biggest issue of concern for most people is that Amazon sidewalk will use a part of pupil's bandwidth in order to create this shared network. Not to mention the fact that this feature was automatically enabled on everyone's devices, instead of giving them the choice to opt in. Amazon says that they'll use multiple layers of protection to maintain people's privacy and security, but without further testing or really more information, it's hard to see what that's gonna look like in [00:02:00] the future. So I don't know about you, but for now I'm keeping that feature disabled on all of my devices. For more information, again, check out scene that's explainer video that covers Amazon sidewalk in more detail. And if you like this video, give it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe to how to do it all.
