I'm not an Amazon home user (I just shop there), but their new "Sidewalk" service really worries me. Sharing your wifi bandwidth from your Echo or Ring devices with others as an opt-out rather than opt-in is wrong. Opening access points to your home network behind your firewall is worse.

WaPost (probably paywalled): https://www.washingtonpost.com/techn...ewalk-network/
"Sidewalk, which is built into Amazon devices dating back to 2018, raises more red flags than a marching band parade: Is it secure enough to be activated in so many homes? Are we helping Amazon build a vast network that can be used for more surveillance? And why didn’t Amazon ask us to opt-in before activating a capability lying dormant in our devices?"

The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/22463257/am...how-to-opt-out

And to answer my question: If they'd made it opt-in, no one would have played along - for good reason!