Comment by failwhaleshark | Hacker News Reader

Comment by failwhaleshark | Hacker News Reader

94.9% pure, organic, outrage, clickbait FUD.

This feels like an "you're either with us or you're against us, Amazon B A D"-article.

The central thesis is misleading and wrong because it's NOT "unlimited, direct sharing of your WiFi to whatever Amazon users happen to fall and scrape their knees outside your home because they can't skateboard," it's "likely low-rate connectivity for other Amazon users' devices over Bluetooth or (maybe) Zigbee gated through Echo devices acting as bridges that happen to use WiFi as a backhaul."

Tile does the same thing already with their mobile app over Bluetooth - everyone with the app and BT on participates as a missing tag locator; Amazon is adding Tile into the mix (900 MHz BLE for Tile Pro) for another way to find tags.

Is Amazon going to suddenly allow or support BitTorrent-to-eSATA light dimmers (or some sort of WiFi backdoor)? IDTS. Where's the problem (other than opt-in vs. opt-out)?

PS: I worked in a radio group of a GPS manufacturer at the time when radio modules were in their kindergarten years. 900 MHz of BLE is always going to work better than 2.4 GHz for low rate data because of physics. 900 MHz is awesome.

The problem is that they're using my hardware, my internet connection and my electricity without paying me or asking for my permission.

Unless it takes significantly more power to do this, you definitely gave it permission to use your electricity.

The lack of proper units awareness here is displeasing.

I demand RMS voltage, amperage, and power factor.

Where's the sanctimonious outrage at Skype, which is almost entirely p2p?

Tile?

BitTorrent?

ipfs?

i2p?

Bitcoin?

freenet? (LOL, jk)

Or that software/firmware updates are automatic. Oooh! Also that Alexa is recording all the time without your permission. Insert moral panic here. In addition, 99% of IoT "smart" devices will cease operating whenever the company decides to turn off their servers. Where's the outrage and bikeshedding?

You invited Big Brother into your house, and now you're worried about the tiny bit of power and/or bandwidth to help other people find where the dropped their keys?

Do you think that the neighbors' smart light switches are going to go under their wallplates at night and Torrent porn on your precious idle internet connection without paying you 5 cents?

Gimme a break. Opt-out if you really don't want to also benefit from a globally-distributed 900 MHz LR BLE community mesh network.

Give me a break.

Skype isn't using your bandwidth for other people's calls.

With Tile, they make it pretty clear that you're joining a network of Bluetooth devices.

As to why you're mentioning P2P protocols like BitTorrent, um... what exactly are you smoking? This has nothing to do with the retroactive opt-out sharing of bandwidth that Amazon is doing.

People don't like it when they buy something and then it suddenly starts exhibiting unadvertised behavior that can only be disabled behind dark patterns. The outrage doesn't exist for those other things because the intention of those things is to share bandwidth.

> Skype isn't using your bandwidth for other people's calls.

Skype used your bandwith for other people's calls for years and years. Look up the old settings on blocking your device from becoming a "supernode". Back in the day as university IT people, we had to set a registry key on all of our windows machines, or they would become the relay server for dozens of international Skype calls.

That feature is no longer part of Skype, but it very much was a thing.

> Where's the problem (other than opt-in vs. opt-out)?

What's the problem, other than the major problem?

When youʼve left something far behind, like at the beach or the gym, the Find My network — hundreds of millions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices around the world — helps track down your AirTag. And itʼs designed to protect your privacy every step of the way.

I wonder if Apple has opt-out/in for the "Find My network?"

https://www.apple.com/airtag/

Here's how you turn it on (or off): https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210400

I feel like 20 years ago we would have complimented them for such an ingenious solution to backup network capability for security related devices.

I don't love the lack of consent involved, but the concerns are way overblown here.

Moral panic about something insignificant when they already invited internet-connected cameras and microphones recording 24/7 that self-update and change functionality all of the time into their homes voluntarily. It seems like much a knee-jerk tantrum about nothing, and the same people will love it later when they find their keys or wallet.

Fair point, tbh. A few folks in here are isolating these things to IOT networks. But I get the feeling that a lot of people complaining are the same people that will gladly buy a cheap camera from a random brand off Amazon and just trust it.

forcing customers into this feature with a short notice that the majority wouldnt even know about is the MAIN issue here.

"Where's the problem (other than opt-in vs. opt-out)?"

You make it sound like this is a side trivial issue, then it's the main issue here.

So you're planning on just letting this happen on your devices; I get it, too much hassle, etc. No need to try and get others to not opt out if they choose to though, that sounds like a lot of effort for someone who's okay with it. Or are you paid by Amazon to promote it?

Don't.

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