Public emergency alert - being sent to your phone

[eharding]

KAgantua said:

Probably been mentioned before, (Not read the thread) isnt it odd that this is happening at the same time as the Ukraine conflict is heating up?

Protect and Survive v2?
Dont want to alarm the population but....

Except that work on the system started in 2018? - the BBC carried the story last summer that the original roll-out was supposed to have been in October 2022, but presumably there was something else more worthy of PH bellyaching and harumphing going on at the time as I don't think there was much of a kerfuffle here when the news came out.

[JuanCarlosFandango]

over_the_hill said:

How selective will it be ?
Warnings of potential floods in Inverness are not that relevant if you live in Croydon.

I've got the Mail for that.

Arctic BLAST to plunge Britain into -10 freeze (at 2am on top of Cairngorm, everywhere else 3-4 with drizzle.

[JuanCarlosFandango]

Otispunkmeyer said:

Not a bad thing IMO as long as its not abused. It can be useful to know certain things but yeah its got to be used sensibly otherwise its going to stray into boy who cried wolf terrirtory.

I think you could sat that about government in general.

[768]

over_the_hill said:

How selective will it be ?
Warnings of potential floods in Inverness are not that relevant if you live in Croydon.

The climate emergency affects everyone.

[RizzoTheRat]

over_the_hill said:

How selective will it be ?
Warnings of potential floods in Inverness are not that relevant if you live in Croydon.

We have a similar system here (NL), I assume they can do it by cell area as the last one we had was for a big fire about 5-10 km away, other than that I think I've only ever had the test messages they do a couple of times a year.

[mac96]

I really can't see the problem with this - yes it could be misused, if that proves to be the case, switch it off. Fatal weather catastrophes are unusual here but not unknown. A lot of lives might have been saved in the 1953 East Coast stormsurge had a proper warning system been available.

[21TonyK]

So what happens if your phone is so old (iphone 6) that it does have a setting for this? are you doomed?

[FNG]

Only if you receive a text to tell you so.

[GSE]

bhstewie said:

Is there anything people won't lose their st about?

Since Covid, nope.

Since then every move by the Government however innocent looking will be viewed with the utmost suspicion on the assumption that ulterior motives are in play

Such a system might be useful when a genuine once in a hundred year emergency might affect you, but eventually it will just be used as another nudge tool by the nanny state.

You know, just like they do with those matrix signs:

"Arrive safe - don't drive and text!"
"Reduce emissions - have a car less day!"
"Stay at home - stay safe"
"Get vaxxed!"

[Zetec-S]

I'll be one of the people who leaves it on, at least to start with. They make sense if used very sparingly, for very extreme weather or if some nutter is running around with a knife or gun, but if they start using it every time we get a bit of wind then I'll be turning it off.

[KAgantua]

Agreed, sounds like a useful tool, but how specific and urgent will the alerts be? Yeah if its going to snow in Inverness, do we need to hear about it in Kent? Also will it alert about every little thing, or reserved for true catastrophes?

Time will tell

[Gecko1978]

KAgantua said:

Agreed, sounds like a useful tool, but how specific and urgent will the alerts be? Yeah if its going to snow in Inverness, do we need to hear about it in Kent? Also will it alert about every little thing, or reserved for true catastrophes?

Time will tell

On holiday few years ago in Canada (quebec) in the cinema airplain mode on and got a message from Canadian authorises re flood warning. It was fine worked well.

[vikingaero]

The usual compo lot will be scared and fumin' and voicing their displeasure at the test emergency alert on their tribal FaceBook accounts.

[anonymoususer]

I have a Samsung S9 connected to Virgin Network
I cant seem to find any setting to turn the emergency alerts off I'm told it should be under connections - More connection settings
Yet it isnt there ?

Actualy it is under messages - settings- emergency alerts (it was set at off y on both extreme alerts and severe alerts

Edited by anonymoususer on Monday 20th March 13:35

[Lotobear]

GSE said:

bhstewie said:

Is there anything people won't lose their st about?

Since Covid, nope.

Since then every move by the Government however innocent looking will be viewed with the utmost suspicion on the assumption that ulterior motives are in play

Such a system might be useful when a genuine once in a hundred year emergency might affect you, but eventually it will just be used as another nudge tool by the nanny state.

You know, just like they do with those matrix signs:

"Arrive safe - don't drive and text!"
"Reduce emissions - have a car less day!"
"Stay at home - stay safe"
"Get vaxxed!"

...this nails exactly my thoughts too. It's another unecessary intrusion into our lives by our failed political classes, they can FRO, mine is already disabled. Sure as eggs are eggs mission creep will build and all sorts of st will be coming into our lives.

Mobile phones (oh sorry - 'devices') are the perfect platform to control a supine population - how soon before they are mandated I wonder?

[bitchstewie]

I wonder if Google and Apple have been approached about removing the ability to disable the alerts.

[eharding]

bhstewie said:

I wonder if Google and Apple have been approached about removing the ability to disable the alerts.

Does seem to vary from country to country - at one point I believe Presidential Alerts couldn't be disabled in the US, but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

There was an attempt a couple of years ago in the US to have the alerts deemed unconstitutional, but it was thrown out by the court (if my reading of the legalese is correct).

[CrutyRammers]

Not new is it, they've been able to broadcast alerts over the landline network since the 1950s IIRC. Not to mention TV and radio.
It doesn't seem an unreasonable bit of infrastructure to have in place, particularly since control remains with the end user.

[808 Estate]

Mr E said:

Places like Japan use it for tsunami warnings.

Knowing our lot, expect to see messages like "Greggs has been flattened in an unexpected meteor strike".

[DaveTheRave87]

I got an alert once when I was in the US. A couple had broken into a foster home and stolen "their" child back. Had all the information on what car to look out for and what to do if I saw it.

This will be useful if it's not overdone but I fear it'll be plastered with information on what we can do now to make the weather better in the 2070s.