Amazon Sidewalk rollout shows the future of 'forced opt-in,' taking lessons from Xfinity Wifi - GeekWire

 Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere when the Panzermobile was violently shaken and thrown about. Following all the chaos took our brave kitty boy to the GeekWire site. With no digging at all he discovered a post about Amazon's new Sidewalk offering. This doesn't have anything to do with publishing or books, but it is important.

According to the post by Christopher Budd, Amazon recently sent an email to Echo customers alerting them to the soon to be released Sidewalk. Amazon's Sidewalk uses a customer's Echo device for constant connectivity. Even if you (or your neighbor) lose your wifi connection, Sidewalk allows you (or your neighbor) to keep your wifi connection by using each other's Echo wifi. Don't want your neighbors to have access to your Echo wifi? You can follow the instructions in the email Amazon sent you to opt-out. Included in the post are links to other information about Amazon's Sidewalk, such as Amazon's own post that says your whole community will be connected with Sidewalk, and a link to another forced opt-in that was done (and is still going on) by Comcast.

This isn't what we pay for.

Panzer says, "Part of this post is about Comcast and their forced opt-in for Xfinity Wifi. Mom didn't have any idea they did that. Maybe that's what slows down her streaming sometimes."

Note: This is a long post. Bring a cup of cocoa and two muffins. If you plan to follow the link in the post to turn off the Xfinity Wifi opt-in, add another muffin. If you plan to follow the other links, bring another cup of cocoa and three muffins.

To read the post tootle over to Amazon Sidewalk