If that sounds scary or privacy-comprising to you, then you have only one week to opt-out of this feature. This service is in the experimental stage and will be launched first in the United States only and intends to create mesh networks in a particular neighborhood. The small mesh networks would then form one giant network covering the entire city. This would help devices like Pet Trackers and Smart Locks to remain connected to the internet if the owner’s internet connection is not working.
As quoted by Ashkan Soltani, who served as the former chief technology officer of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, “In addition to capturing everyone’s shopping habits (from amazon.com) and their internet activity (as AWS is one of the most dominant web hosting services)…now they are also effectively becoming a global ISP with a flick of a switch, all without even having to lay a single foot of fiber”.
Once the Sidewalk feature rolls out, only time will tell what loopholes and limitations this technology has and how people with malicious intent can take undue advantage of this feature.
