Disabling Amazon Sidewalk on Ring Devices
As reported by Wired and other outlets, on June 8th, 2021 many Alexa-enabled devices such as select Ring cameras and smart devices will automatically create a shared network across the United States for authorized devices by carving out a little bandwidth from their host networks. The only way to prevent your devices from participating is to opt out.
Maybe you are not interested in sharing even a small amount of bandwidth with other devices, perhaps you are wary the types of security issues which may come along with new communication protocols, or maybe the opt-out model does not sit well with you. Whatever your reason, this guide illustrates how to revoke Amazon Sidewalk permission and prevent your devices from participating in the shared network.
Amazon Sidewalk?
The short story is Amazon Sidewalk enables participating devices to share bandwidth to remain online. Some justifications given for this include to weather hiccups in network connectivity or continue to function further from the primary wireless network source. If this does not entice you to remain opted-in, continue reading.
How to opt-out?
While I do not use Alexa devices, my searches for how to disable Sidewalk seemed to focus on using the Alexa app to opt out. This did not end up working for my use case because all I have are ring devices. If you decide to opt out and have both Alexa and Ring devices, after opting out on one platform, ensure you are opted out in all desired locations.
iOS
- Select the Menu Icon in the top left
- Select Control Center
- Then Amazon Sidewalk
- Toggle the switch so it reads "Disabled"
Web Client
- Navigate to https://ring.com, select login in the upper-right and authenticate
- Select Account in the upper-right and navigate to Control Center
- Scroll down, select Amazon Sidewalk from the left menu bar then disable
Further Reading
How Amazon Sidewalk Works-and Why You May Want to Turn It Off
Amazon Sidewalk Privacy and Security Whitepaper