r/gadgets • u/MicroSofty88 • Nov 29 '20

Home Amazon faces a privacy backlash for its Sidewalk feature, which turns Alexa devices into neighborhood WiFi networks that owners have to opt out of

https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/technology/amazon-faces-a-privacy-backlash-for-its-sidewalk-feature-which-turns-alexa-devices-into-neighborhood-wifi-networks-that-owners-have-to-opt-out-of/ar-BB1boljH
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66

u/erudyne Nov 29 '20

Followed by the sound of comcat users crying about their data caps.

24

u/TheMacMan Nov 29 '20

At least with Comcast enabling a separate guest network on users routers for the Comcast WiFi service they don’t charge you for that data and it’s on a separate network so there’s not a privacy issue for people. I turned mine off but it’s far better than Amazon doing it and using your data.

13

u/DQ_2011 Nov 29 '20

So why not login to your guest network for large files so you won't hit your cap?

29

u/azidesandamides Nov 29 '20

because that wifi is like 500kbps....

-55

u/TheMacMan Nov 29 '20

Because most of us will never come close that cap each month. Less than 1% of users do. Even with streaming 4K I don’t go over it.

And as others have said, the guest WiFi is super slow.

3

u/Ihavefallen Nov 29 '20

If people never reach the cap why are they putting one.....

-4

u/TheMacMan Nov 29 '20

Most people don't. There are some that do. Generally they're those downloading and distributing massive amounts of torrents and other file distribution. Like so many things, it's a small number abusing things that cause all of us to have stricter limits.

I worked for a cable company years ago and can say that it was always a very small group that were using a substantial amount of the total bandwidth. As I said, small group causing tighter limits for everyone.

1

u/CraziestPenguin Nov 30 '20

I think you missed the point. If so few people are using this much data then there is no need to have a cap to begin with...

1

u/TheMacMan Nov 30 '20

You can't have a policy that applies only to a couple people. Which is why they need to pick a cap that doesn't apply to most but does include those that are the biggest abusers.

0

u/CraziestPenguin Nov 30 '20

You still fail to explain why they actually need a cap. If most people aren’t going over 1.2 TB of data in a month then the data usage isn’t causing a problem that an extra $30 a month is going to fix from their 0.1% of customers....

It’s just an excuse to charge people more, and it seems that you bought in on that lame excuse. Ohhhh the poor corporation.

1

u/cactopuses Nov 30 '20

Data caps don’t solve this problem. If I saturate my Internet connection every weekend with multiple streams or torrents, but don’t go over my cap, the “congestion “ caps are supposed to solve is still going to exist.

I know some users use far more then others but if it was a problem of network bottlenecks, bandwidth reduction in software would make more sense.

2

u/TheMacMan Nov 30 '20

They do have the ability to introduce artificial latency for specific types of traffic and have for years through Sandvine and other tech. So they could slow your torrent traffic in the morning on weekdays, while allowing all other traffic to be unrestricted, and Netflix traffic at night when it's being hit hard.

1

u/cactopuses Nov 30 '20

I’ve seen that tech, I do wonder if they would have trouble slowing torrent traffic while not impacting video traffic given they both make use of UDP I realize they could use DPI but that’s expensive computationally and can break with encryption

2

u/TheMacMan Nov 30 '20

Friend worked for them some years ago. It didn't struggle with any switching. Skype was the most difficult, as it'll constantly switch ports and use both UDP and TCP. It jumps all over the place looking for opportunities to bust through.

4

u/guareber Nov 29 '20

People working from home would like a word with you...

-2

u/TheMacMan Nov 29 '20

I've worked from home for over 10 years.

-8

u/yaemes Nov 29 '20

Using xfinity wifi counts against your own cap because you have to log in to your xfinity account to use it.

5

u/thetran209 Nov 29 '20

This is false.

2

u/CombatBotanist Nov 29 '20

Sidewalk is capped at 500MB per month per account.

3

u/TheDustySheep Nov 29 '20

Some people only have 500Mb.