Amazon Sidewalk Surveillance

**Amazon's Mesh Network: A Discussion on Privacy Concerns**

In a recent discussion, participants delved into Amazon's proposed mesh network, highlighting concerns about privacy and the potential implications of such technology. The conversation revolved around how Amazon's Ring and Echo devices could create a neighborhood-wide network for tracking purposes, with one participant expressing distrust in these devices.

**Introduction to Amazon's Mesh Network**

The participants discussed Amazon's plan to create a mesh network using Ring and Echo devices. This network would allow each device to act as a hub, spreading connectivity across neighborhoods. The idea is that this low-bandwidth network could extend two to five miles, enabling geolocation features. Amazon has already introduced a mailbox sensor as its first product, which they claim would help users track their dogs.

**Personal Experiences with Smart Devices and Privacy Concerns**

One participant shared their personal experience of unplugging all Echo and Dot devices when visiting their in-laws' house due to distrust in these devices. Another participant mentioned their 17-year-old son covering Amazon and Google devices with a blanket when not in use, as they refuse to be spied on. The discussion highlighted the growing concern among individuals about the privacy implications of smart devices.

**Distrust in Tech Companies vs. Apple**

The conversation shifted to comparing tech companies' approaches to data collection. While participants expressed distrust in Amazon and Google, they acknowledged Apple's better track record with privacy. One participant noted that while their phone has cameras and GPS, they feel more secure using an iPhone compared to devices from other companies.

**Broader Implications for Society and Future Generations**

The discussion touched on the broader implications of tech companies collecting data. Participants worried about the potential misuse of this data by governments or third parties. They expressed concern about how children might handle their data in the future, emphasizing the need for them to make informed choices about privacy.

**Conclusion or Final Thoughts**

In conclusion, the participants emphasized the importance of being cautious with technology that collects personal data. They highlighted the need for individuals to take control of their digital environments and protect their privacy against potential misuse by tech companies and governments. The conversation underscored the complex relationship between technology, privacy, and trust in an increasingly connected world.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is twit this is the mesh network amazon wants to create in all it's really a ring product i guess which is also amazon uh the idea is a low band let's call low raw network that is can go two to five miles with the transmitters but everybody who has a ring device or an amazon echo can be a hub and continue to spread that out around the neighborhood ultimately putting a mesh over the entire neighborhood that could be used for geolocating their first product they announced was a mailbox sensor but they said you'll never lose your dog again because you will know exactly where your dog is in the mesh at all times i imagine amazon also intends to put this in their delivery trucks maybe even it's probably too expensive to put in packages because you need a transmitter but this could be hugely valuable for amazon's logistics as well if you don't trust amazon how do you feel about the idea of an amazon kind of wiring with you don't have to do anything it's not it's not up to you wiring your neighborhood okay so leo whenever i'm with my my in-laws i go around to the rooms that i'm in and i unplug all the echoes and dots because i don't trust them and all the google homes my father likes technology oh i don't like he's stuck with me our 17 year olds he'll be 18 and two in about a month uh goes around putting all the amazon uh devices and the google devices the cameras face down it just goes around the house because he doesn't want to be spied on and he turns off the nest camera when he goes out on the deck and it's well yes no i mean i i think i mean i refuse to have any of those devices in the house because i don't see the cost benefits i'm just here with a how bunch of luddites in a technology podcast that we're all together you know joining hands in our anti-amazon anti-camera observation world here this is great for me well no i mean this has been one of the things that working from home has really sort of um made things interesting as a couple because monica has heard me during my working day and has been kind of shocked about the amount of profanity which goes on in my day-to-day business he works for the register of course it's what i i mean i don't want amazon or google anyone else listening into me shouting and screaming at people okay so let me ask obviously what do you guys do about this your cell phone it's got a microphone two or three cameras it's got gps and it's always on the internet what do you do about that do you well that's the thing i've already got a spy in my home it's my iphone well you might as well get everything else oh that alex when you turn off your in-laws all of their devices do you also put your phone in a lead-lined box uh no i put myself in a bloodline box with a phone on top so i can still get tweets that's the that's the correct way to do that no i look leo it's like saying oh you've been shot once why don't you shot a thousand more times it's the same thing it's not i i can try to have a more secure safe personal digital environment and not put cameras and microphones all over my house attached to companies with spotty track records about privacy at least my phone this is an iphone 11 something i don't know someone can tell me what it's got two cameras not three i think it's with bad ones but like apple actually has a reasonable history with privacy because they're not an advertising company amazon and google are huge advertising companies i don't trust them i don't yeah i mean all it takes is about half an hour of work you can lock down i mean i'm a pixel user nexus before that i i'm sold on android that's fine but all it takes is half an hour of work you can lock this stuff down you can turn off the microphone you can activate it with a simple button push but i don't want a phone that's just singing on me the whole time and google is making it purposely difficult to do that but that's their business it's my business to get in their way compare and contrast u3 with me i turn on all beacons everything it's all on the network's on everything's on am i like somehow uh what's is my life worse because of that has anything gone on i can't i've been doing this my whole life i sit on camera 20 hours a week i show my home address i assure your home address i'm still slightly mad about that i'm so sorry i apologize i forget sometimes that people care i don't feel like i'm suffering because of that the police haven't come and dragged me off i'm not i'm not in uh amazon prison i don't get more ads than you do but why give it up for free you know it's like this stuff is valuable if they're willing to pay me for this stuff fine but why give it up for free why not so it's precedent i think it is a slippery slope because i when uh apple introduced face id to the iphone i was very against it i was determined not to get the phone with the face id i love touch id so much and then i did get it and i was like okay well i'll turn it off when i go through airports i'll be really careful and lo and behold i don't do that anymore i'm very complacent with face id and i think similarly the more that we allow tech companies to encroach on our privacy the more we'll just be like oh well nothing bad has happened yet i guess it must be okay and that's how you get it what's gonna happen is jeff bezos gonna come to my house and force force feed me amazon products i mean we have amazon selling data to uh police departments and selling face id technology to the military we have a situation that could with bad actors get completely out of control um i would submit i agree if we have a situation like that we have so much of a bigger problem than just the fact that you've got a lot of data online if you've got a government that is at this point going to start dragging people off you're we're in much deeper trouble and there are much more proximate ways they can grab you including just taking you off the streets i don't think it's that serious they're not going to be dragging people off the streets they're going to be saying someone will have a quiet word with you and say look we just happen to notice that those websites and the rest of that maybe you like might like to tone down your criticism of certain things when that happens i will be the first to let you know um also one more nuance to this is like uh i want to have kids and uh i want them to be able to choose for themselves how much of their data is collected and i'm gonna do like for and that's when i agree with you um like a hundred percent i wish i had shielded my children better uh well i've got to say i i feel phenomenally lucky to have grown through my teens and twenties in a time when digital photography was not available because my reputation would be trashed right now some of the pictures that could have been taken in those years you know and now it's all online everyone is sticking the stuff online and we're either going to have to come to a point where you understan what i hope is that we'll come to a point where people will accept everyone is imperfect and the rest of it because there's always evidence online but i fear the current puritanical streak of things and it'll be used against peoplethis is twit this is the mesh network amazon wants to create in all it's really a ring product i guess which is also amazon uh the idea is a low band let's call low raw network that is can go two to five miles with the transmitters but everybody who has a ring device or an amazon echo can be a hub and continue to spread that out around the neighborhood ultimately putting a mesh over the entire neighborhood that could be used for geolocating their first product they announced was a mailbox sensor but they said you'll never lose your dog again because you will know exactly where your dog is in the mesh at all times i imagine amazon also intends to put this in their delivery trucks maybe even it's probably too expensive to put in packages because you need a transmitter but this could be hugely valuable for amazon's logistics as well if you don't trust amazon how do you feel about the idea of an amazon kind of wiring with you don't have to do anything it's not it's not up to you wiring your neighborhood okay so leo whenever i'm with my my in-laws i go around to the rooms that i'm in and i unplug all the echoes and dots because i don't trust them and all the google homes my father likes technology oh i don't like he's stuck with me our 17 year olds he'll be 18 and two in about a month uh goes around putting all the amazon uh devices and the google devices the cameras face down it just goes around the house because he doesn't want to be spied on and he turns off the nest camera when he goes out on the deck and it's well yes no i mean i i think i mean i refuse to have any of those devices in the house because i don't see the cost benefits i'm just here with a how bunch of luddites in a technology podcast that we're all together you know joining hands in our anti-amazon anti-camera observation world here this is great for me well no i mean this has been one of the things that working from home has really sort of um made things interesting as a couple because monica has heard me during my working day and has been kind of shocked about the amount of profanity which goes on in my day-to-day business he works for the register of course it's what i i mean i don't want amazon or google anyone else listening into me shouting and screaming at people okay so let me ask obviously what do you guys do about this your cell phone it's got a microphone two or three cameras it's got gps and it's always on the internet what do you do about that do you well that's the thing i've already got a spy in my home it's my iphone well you might as well get everything else oh that alex when you turn off your in-laws all of their devices do you also put your phone in a lead-lined box uh no i put myself in a bloodline box with a phone on top so i can still get tweets that's the that's the correct way to do that no i look leo it's like saying oh you've been shot once why don't you shot a thousand more times it's the same thing it's not i i can try to have a more secure safe personal digital environment and not put cameras and microphones all over my house attached to companies with spotty track records about privacy at least my phone this is an iphone 11 something i don't know someone can tell me what it's got two cameras not three i think it's with bad ones but like apple actually has a reasonable history with privacy because they're not an advertising company amazon and google are huge advertising companies i don't trust them i don't yeah i mean all it takes is about half an hour of work you can lock down i mean i'm a pixel user nexus before that i i'm sold on android that's fine but all it takes is half an hour of work you can lock this stuff down you can turn off the microphone you can activate it with a simple button push but i don't want a phone that's just singing on me the whole time and google is making it purposely difficult to do that but that's their business it's my business to get in their way compare and contrast u3 with me i turn on all beacons everything it's all on the network's on everything's on am i like somehow uh what's is my life worse because of that has anything gone on i can't i've been doing this my whole life i sit on camera 20 hours a week i show my home address i assure your home address i'm still slightly mad about that i'm so sorry i apologize i forget sometimes that people care i don't feel like i'm suffering because of that the police haven't come and dragged me off i'm not i'm not in uh amazon prison i don't get more ads than you do but why give it up for free you know it's like this stuff is valuable if they're willing to pay me for this stuff fine but why give it up for free why not so it's precedent i think it is a slippery slope because i when uh apple introduced face id to the iphone i was very against it i was determined not to get the phone with the face id i love touch id so much and then i did get it and i was like okay well i'll turn it off when i go through airports i'll be really careful and lo and behold i don't do that anymore i'm very complacent with face id and i think similarly the more that we allow tech companies to encroach on our privacy the more we'll just be like oh well nothing bad has happened yet i guess it must be okay and that's how you get it what's gonna happen is jeff bezos gonna come to my house and force force feed me amazon products i mean we have amazon selling data to uh police departments and selling face id technology to the military we have a situation that could with bad actors get completely out of control um i would submit i agree if we have a situation like that we have so much of a bigger problem than just the fact that you've got a lot of data online if you've got a government that is at this point going to start dragging people off you're we're in much deeper trouble and there are much more proximate ways they can grab you including just taking you off the streets i don't think it's that serious they're not going to be dragging people off the streets they're going to be saying someone will have a quiet word with you and say look we just happen to notice that those websites and the rest of that maybe you like might like to tone down your criticism of certain things when that happens i will be the first to let you know um also one more nuance to this is like uh i want to have kids and uh i want them to be able to choose for themselves how much of their data is collected and i'm gonna do like for and that's when i agree with you um like a hundred percent i wish i had shielded my children better uh well i've got to say i i feel phenomenally lucky to have grown through my teens and twenties in a time when digital photography was not available because my reputation would be trashed right now some of the pictures that could have been taken in those years you know and now it's all online everyone is sticking the stuff online and we're either going to have to come to a point where you understan what i hope is that we'll come to a point where people will accept everyone is imperfect and the rest of it because there's always evidence online but i fear the current puritanical streak of things and it'll be used against people\n"