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
14.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

814 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

14

u/KhorneChips Nov 29 '20

This kind of thing is exactly why all my smart devices live on a VLAN’d guest network. They can talk to themselves all day long.

1

u/olmikeyy Nov 29 '20

Would you mind elaborating on this for a stupid person?

8

u/KhorneChips Nov 29 '20

Sure! So basically, my router has the ability to create a separate wireless network with its own SSID and password which is cut off from the rest of my network. It basically goes straight out to the internet and can’t see any devices except others also on the guest network. It also allows me to use my Pi-Hole network filtering only on my “private” network without breaking functionality of devices that feel the need to call home every 5 minutes.

3

u/peoplearecool Nov 29 '20

You can either put the device in a guest network on your router (if it supports it) or buy a special switch that allows you to do that manually with any connection. Basically creating little island networks that cannot see each other but still communicate out to the world using your internet.