So many aspects of this situation are incredibly unethical. (Make a list.)
Sadly, like many of you, I discovered that Ring seemingly ensured that app users would be unable to opt out of Sidewalk until:
Ring, Amazon, and an unknown number of other third parties were given the opportunity to do whatever they wanted with your WiFi (without your knowledge and/or permission)
Sidewalk was turned on, by default
In other words, by the time you are able to opt out of Sidewalk, it’s far too late. The damage has already been done.
Thus, will you ever trust these companies again? Or will you always be wondering what else they are doing to harm you… as well as what harm will happen to you in the future because of what they’ve already done?
Of course, it’s outrageous that users are being forced to check daily (or more often).
If my experience is any indication… Ring will NOT notify you before and/or after the Sidewalk feature is turned on, by default. Thus, if you don’t check constantly, you will (unintentionally) be allowing Sidewalk to remain “on” for an unlimited amount of time.
As users in this thread probably already know… the best thing that could happen for smart device users is if a truly overwhelming number of Ring users (and Amazon Echo users) opt out of Sidewalk the moment they are able to do so. The reasons are obvious.
If Sidewalk is a success… can you imagine how many companies (and other entities) will want to do the same thing?
Hey neighbors! I’m here to help clear up some confusion that there may be around the Sidewalk feature and it’s opt-out option and viewing this in app. Sidewalk is only enabled for existing customers with eligible Sidewalk-enabled Ring devices, known as Sidewalk Bridges. You can see which Ring devices are Sidewalk-compatible here. Before Sidewalk became available, we began notifying existing customers with eligible Sidewalk Bridge devices so they could consider the benefits of Sidewalk and decide whether they want to change their preferences. Customers setting up a Sidewalk Bridge for the first time will see their Sidewalk settings during device setup, and can change those settings at any time.
Please note: You must have a Sidewalk-enabled Ring device to use Sidewalk. You can learn more in our Help Center article here. If you do not have a compatible device, Sidewalk is not available to you.
I may not have an eligible device and do not appear to have an opt out button available in my Ring app or on your website. I also cannot find an email to send this to. I’m opting out of Sidewalk. I do not authorize Amazon to coop any of my bandwidth, regardless of whether I have a suitable device or not. doing so may be in violation of my agreement with my ISP. j babin
Although I do not have a sidewalk bridge compatible device, I have a Ring account. I’ve read the terms of service for Ring and Amazon. Regardless of whether I have a Sidewalk compatible device, my concern is that Amazon will still have the option of taking my bandwidth if I cannot explicitly opt out.
It looks like Ring/Amazon took a look of effort to ensure that Sidewalk would become a fait accompli, despite objections from customers.
The OP stated “Amazon Sidewalk will cause Ring customers to leave Ring”. Do you think that most people will continue to purchase from Ring/Amazon despite their objections? In other words, are most people so easily distracted that they will quickly forget about the Sidewalk scandal and/or so lazy they will not bother to attempt to find alternate suppliers?
That is EXACTLY what they will do, if you have ANY devices. I cannot opt out due to older iOS and cannot upgrade to iOS which will allow a Ring app to let me opt out. Their “help” staff on chat and phone are clueless and just parrot that if you do not have compatible devices, you cannot “use”Sidewalk-however, that has NOTHING to do with them pirating and using our internet illegally😡
Hey neighbors. Please note : You must have a Sidewalk-enabled Ring device to use Sidewalk. You can learn more on if you have a Sidewalk device and more in our Help Center article here. If you do not have a compatible device, Sidewalk is not available to you and you will not need to opt-out.
You can opt-out from within the Ring app, or on Ring.com, at any time. For steps on how to do this in the Ring app, please follow our Help Center article here. If you need to do this from Ring.com, you can go log in at Ring.com > go to Account (top right) > Control Center > and disable Sidewalk from there. If you have any issues with this, please contact our support team directly for further assistance.
Chelsea -you are further missing the point! We are concerned that our internet will be used to provide bandwidth for Sidewalk, not so much that we do or do not have Sidewalk enabled devices😡. Sidewalk help info shows very clearly that devices on the really long list and online with Ring, using internet, will be utilized for the Sidewalk bandwidth. There is absolutely NO opt out for this bandwidth theft except to turn off all our compatible items.
Cannot opt out if our iOS is too low…same thing if you do not use Alexa. I want out and you need to provide a way.
Contacting support is USELESS. I tried Amazon, Ring, and Alexa help and reps did not understand anything…only read from their scripts. Phone or online chat resulted in same clueless results.
Either we are allowed to refuse to allow out internet to be park of the mesh /network /Sidewalk program or we seek alternative solutions. You cannot require this activity as part of Ring without opt out options. Also, if we cannot use the Ring and other products because of the lack of opting out options, we are being deprived of service for which we paid when purchasing our items, especially those with video accounts. And this does not even begin to touch privacy issues…
Just did a chat with A ring rep. She was knowledgeable and understood what I was concerned about. It appears that NOT ALL ring cameras are automatically being sucked into this network. The reason MY Control center did not have an Amazon Sidewalk SLIDER is because my camera is NOT currently compatible with this Amazon feature.
Good for me, I guess.
For now.
She did not have any information regarding if and or when all Ring cameras would be integrated into this network, so I guess I’ll just keep my eyes open for now.
Chelsea … the canned responses you keep giving are very frustrating because they don’t align with what many of us are seeing. For instance you say there’s no need to opt out if we don’t have an eligible device. But in my case I DO have an eligible device … a wired Spotlight Cam … but there is still no option to opt out. And that’s a problem.
Hey @OAW. It seems that you do not have a wired Spotlight Cam that is compatible, which is why you’re seeing this messaging in app. The Ring Floodlight Cams and Spotlight Cams with a 900 MHz chip are compatible with Sidewalk. Devices with that chip began shipping in May 2019. If your device does not have this 900 MHz chip, it is not compatible with Sidewalk and therefore you do not need to opt out. You can view a comprehensive list of all of the devices that are compatible with Sidewalk at amazon.com/sidewalk.
Thank you for the clarification. It turns out I purchased my Wired Spotlight Cam in April 2019 so that would be right before the new models shipped. That being said Ring/Amazon can and should do better communicating this to customers. The message in the Ring app says nothing of the sort and makes no distinction between different models of the same device. And the list of compatible devices in the link you provided says “Spotlight Cam Wired (2019)” … nothing about the actual release month of May so that verbiage is inaccurate for customers like me who purchased in the first few months of 2019.
