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I rebooted my router yesterday while watching something. My Amazon Fire stick, upon losing connection with the default wlan, automatically connected to an avail

I rebooted my router yesterday while watching something. My Amazon Fire stick, upon losing connection with the default wlan, automatically connected to an available, unencrypted Vodafone hotspot from nearby and automatically showed a popup window offering me the different connection options in the middle of the movie. Shady and creepy as hell.

spydum 6y ago
I think amazon offers a mechanism on your Amazon linked devices of sharing wifi credentials. If you had ever fired up an amazon fire tablet or something and connected to that hotspot, the fire STICK may have accessed the wireless history and assumed it was yours to connect to.
- alexandrerond 6y ago
  No, I never connected to this hotspot that I know of. In Germany Vodafone automatically enables their hotspots on the routers of people.
chewxy 6y ago
Amazon Sidewalk enabled?
- stevehawk 6y ago
  most likely just amazon doing what everyone else does and storing your wifi history and password in the cloud under your account. so as you switch/add devices it's easier to setup
- thatguy0900 6y ago
  https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/ https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/
- alexandrerond 6y ago
  Never used
javajosh 6y ago
This only proves the plausibility of the vector, not that it's being used. It seems that it was done in the interests of usability, maybe, but if I worked for Amazon I would have pushed back on this feature: joining a wifi access point without permission is a bad practice, and this would have been very confusing for most users, as well as a security nightmare.
- cced 6y ago
  To be honest, I don't think I've seen anyone claim that TV X connects to unsecured hotspots. The claims I see are that it is possible. It's a matter of time before this is the norm.
  - gruez 6y ago
    There was a post on /r/privacy that claimed just that. Got quite a bit of upvotes/responses too. https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/bpr6xs/if_you_choose_to_not_connect_your_samsung_smart/ https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/bpr6xs/if_you_choo...
- scaryclam 6y ago
  Not only bad practice, but potentially not legal. Whether or not you think it's morally ok to connect to unsecured wifi without consent, in some places the law may prohibit it.
  - em-bee 6y ago
    i can confirm that it's illegal at least in singapore
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

spydum 6y ago

I think amazon offers a mechanism on your Amazon linked devices of sharing wifi credentials. If you had ever fired up an amazon fire tablet or something and connected to that hotspot, the fire STICK may have accessed the wireless history and assumed it was yours to connect to.

alexandrerond 6y ago
No, I never connected to this hotspot that I know of. In Germany Vodafone automatically enables their hotspots on the routers of people.

chewxy 6y ago

Amazon Sidewalk enabled?

stevehawk 6y ago
most likely just amazon doing what everyone else does and storing your wifi history and password in the cloud under your account. so as you switch/add devices it's easier to setup
thatguy0900 6y ago
https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/ https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Sidewalk/
alexandrerond 6y ago
Never used

javajosh 6y ago

This only proves the plausibility of the vector, not that it's being used. It seems that it was done in the interests of usability, maybe, but if I worked for Amazon I would have pushed back on this feature: joining a wifi access point without permission is a bad practice, and this would have been very confusing for most users, as well as a security nightmare.

cced 6y ago
To be honest, I don't think I've seen anyone claim that TV X connects to unsecured hotspots. The claims I see are that it is possible. It's a matter of time before this is the norm.
- gruez 6y ago
  There was a post on /r/privacy that claimed just that. Got quite a bit of upvotes/responses too. https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/bpr6xs/if_you_choose_to_not_connect_your_samsung_smart/ https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/bpr6xs/if_you_choo...
scaryclam 6y ago
Not only bad practice, but potentially not legal. Whether or not you think it's morally ok to connect to unsecured wifi without consent, in some places the law may prohibit it.
- em-bee 6y ago
  i can confirm that it's illegal at least in singapore
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]