Amazon can track your phone’s location even if you don’t use any of its products or services
Along with so any new products unveiled at Amazon’s hardware event on Wednesday were two features that are a bit less tangible, a new wireless protocol that links smart objects, and , a brand of WiFi router the company acquired and is selling for people to use in their homes.
With all new offerings, the number of Amazon made routers and devices in homes and stores is set to increase nationwide. Sidewalk will use this generation of devices to build a “mesh network” a wireless network where each device communicates with one another, working together to transmit data across the network – that spans broad geographical areas. As per Amazon’s announcement, the company found that placing 700 devices across Los Angeles was enough to cover the entire metropolitan area of the city And later will keep adding city ti its list.
When it comes to privacy watchdogs are sounding alarm bells about what that means for the company’s ability to surveil individuals.
Liz O’Sullivan who is a Tech activist flagged the mesh network’s potential for surveillance during the Amazon hardware event and tweeted about it Thursday.
This is what you need to know about the new Amazon update and what it could mean for your privacy.
Amazon’ mesh network could help the tech company monitor your phone’s location
Now if you don’t use Amazon’s wireless networks in your own home – or join its WiFi networks when you go out – the mesh network could enable Amazon to get data about the location of your devices.
WiFi networks Owners can track what devices are nearby even if those devices don’t sign onto the network, just like a smartphone can detect nearby networks without signing on.
If you come in range of a wireless network owned by Amazon, the company could receive information like your device’s MAC address, a unique identifier assigned to each device. If you have download an Amazon app or log into your Amazon account, the company could pair that MAC address with your user profile.
Why does this matter?
This technology that allows owners of WiFi routers to track nearby devices is nothing new. For companies to build such sprawling mesh networks using devices that users set up in their own homes is kinda unusual.
Amazon has always been a company that shows interest in tracking users’ data and location. Geographical data is an important assets for building user profiles and targeting advertisements accordingly, a growing business for almost all big tech companies.
Currently Amazon has 2 or more contracts with police in US, turning over insights from its network of Ring cameras to as many as 200 police departments nationwide, according to a Motherboard report.
For now, many of the details surrounding how Sidewalk and EERO networks will work remains unclear. Amazon was not specific to our insider what sort of data it will track with its new mesh networks, or whether that data will be up for grabs by the law enforcement agencies it partners with.
An Amazon spokesperson did not respond to our our questions regarding how it will use geolocation data gleaned from its mesh network.
