Tracking a lost item is never easy. But, with the help of others, it takes a lesser time and effort to look for your misplaced items. Alexa-enabled devices have the Amazon Sidewalk feature that allows users to share a small amount of their bandwidth to their neighborhood. It does not mean that you are giving away your private network connection. It only means that you can enable features like motion sensors, tracking, outdoor lighting that will help your community. It will allow long-range tracking and extend the functionalities of your home smart devices.
However, one of the primary issues for some users is the privacy of information. Since you will be contributing a low-bandwidth to the shared network through Amazon Sidewalk, users are skeptical about the protection of their private network and data.
According to Amazon, the Amazon Sidewalk feature has multiple layers of encryption to ensure that your data is safe and secured. But, if you don’t feel comfortable with the idea of sharing your bandwidth, you have the option to turn off your Amazon Sidewalk feature.
SEE ALSO: List of Amazon Sidewalk Supported and Compatible Devices
How to Turn Off or Opt Out of Amazon Sidewalk using your Alexa App
Unfortunately, Amazon Sidewalk is an opt-out feature. It means that you need to disable it manually instead of having the option to enable it in the first place. Your Echo and Ring devices have the Amazon Sidewalk feature turned on by default.
Still, it is simple to opt out of Amazon Sidewalk on your account if you want to disable or turn it off. Follow the steps below to turn off the Amazon Sidewalk feature on your Echo device.
- Launch your Alexa app.
- Tap More.
- Go to Settings.
- Select Account Settings.
- Tap Amazon Sidewalk.
- To turn off/disable/opt-out of Amazon Sidewalk, toggle the button to Off.
- If you want to enable the feature, you can toggle it to On.
How to Disable Community Finding on the Alexa App
You also have the option to disable the Community Finding feature. It goes together with the Amazon Sidewalk since users can track their lost devices and pets through the Sidewalk-enabled trackers. Still, Amazon assures its users that other people can only see the approximate location on the Community Finding tool.
- To turn off the Community Finding feature, go back to the Settings menu of your Alexa app.
- Choose Account Settings.
- This time, toggle the Community Finding feature off.
Do you prefer to turn on or off your Amazon Sidewalk feature? What are your reasons for doing so? We value your opinion. You can share them with us in the comment section.