Public emergency alert - being sent to your phone

[CoolHands]

The government are going to send a test example of this new Public emergency alert to all mobile devices on Sunday 23 April.

Now, I’m a real moaner (surprise) so hear my complaint! - I don’t want their fking bullst alerts! Can you imagine, once they get settled in - amber alerts cos it’s fking warm outside etc. water is wet springs to mind. I deliberately avoid most of the bks weather reports, now I won’t be able to deny them.

“ Messages would only ever come from the government or emergency services and will initially focus on the most serious weather-related events,”

“Phone users will have to acknowledge the alert before they can use other features on their devices”

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/launch-of-life-...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64999417

[CoolHands]

Ah


Edit I can’t find the settings in iPhone - can anyone else?

Edt edit it’s here

Go to Settings > Notifications.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen.
Under Government Alerts, turn the type of alert on or off.

Edited by CoolHands on Sunday 19th March 12:45

[CoolHands]

Biker 1 said:

Presumably alerts would be localised? Would that mean you would need to have location access activated also?

I think it goes to all cell towers in a ward / area so just needs your phone to be connected to those towers ie not location based in terms of looking at your phone.

[CoolHands]

bhstewie said:

surveyor said:

I am stunned to be reading so many replies by complete and total idiots. Perhaps I should not be in NP&E.

Is there potential to bring valuable information to the general public? Yep.

Could the government perhaps overuse the system? Yep.

What happens if it annoys you? Turn it off. What happens if it does not and you leave it switched on? Absolutely nothing.

Is it a big deal? Nope!

Quite.

Easy way and hard way.

Some people always do things the hard way.

Instead of being so superior maybe look at what some others have written including gch who has examples or what are not emergencies from the public’s point of view. Curfew is more about wanting to enforce public compliance for the state’s benefit. An emergency for them, maybe. Would Paris be issuing them now?

I’ve experienced ‘floods’ here in London, I’m sure they will come under the emergency weather warning classification. But do they need to? No, is the answer - I just had to avoid the north circ for a few hours, big whoo.

And why would any of us trust (any) government these days? So yes it is an imposition, it will cost money which has rightly been pointed out would be of more use spent on repairing roads, or public parks, or almost anything else.

Still, climate death terror must be reinforced, for our own good!

[CoolHands]

RizzoTheRat said:

the tin foil hatters

More belittling. There’s been no event in my lifetime that we need a warning about, or that had we received one would’ve made any difference to anything. It’s hot. It’s cold. There’s flooding. Don’t tell me, some old granny somewhere has probably died in a flood, even in the uk - this would have saved her?

[CoolHands]

It won’t

[CoolHands]

ChocolateFrog said:

.

However in this case the people it's triggering are at the loony end of the conspiracy theorist.

Edited by ChocolateFrog on Tuesday 28th March 20:10

Not really as the term triggered is just demeaning those of us that think it’s simply a crock of st. I’m not triggered. It’s at the “Don’t drive tired” uselessness end of the spectrum. Absolutely no use to anyone, and the various contrived scenarios given thus far in this thread are plainly bunkum. Raul Moat on the loose? Yeah very handy “Stay indoors, gunman on the rampage” - that would be great but I’m standing at the bus stop?? Oh well fair game I suppose

Surveyor somewhere up there ^ said they’ve been developing this for the last 10 years. Cheap at half the price, I’m sure

[CoolHands]

sebdangerfield said:

Localised like a cell tower is localised? Faster than light speed?

Edited by sebdangerfield on Monday 10th April 07:31

Can you or anyone give a sensible example of a message you think might be sent, that is useful?
‘Localised flooding - stay indoors’ etc is what I envisage. Do you really think that is needed?

How about a real event that occurred in 2019 and captured the media’s attention; ‘Catastrophic dam collapse - stay indoors’ for those in the local village when the Toddbrook Reservoir nearly collapsed? Yeah that wouldn’t panic the villagers living below it much. Very useful! Would getting that message help or hinder? I think the panic it would create is unnecessary.

[CoolHands]

I was promised my fridge would be ordering my dinner but I’ve been waiting since at least 2020

[CoolHands]

wst said:

GSE said:

They will not leave us alone, will they:

As well as my local surgery sending me regular text messages telling me to not bother contacting them because they are understaffed, conducting staff training exercises or are on strike, now they are sending me texts telling me about the new government public warning system! I thought I'd blocked their texts, may be they are now sending them out on another number.

Dear Government; F off.

Not sure your GP surgery is the government, chap. Be an adult and request your number be used for actually relevant medical communication.

ETA: I am going to be avoiding the roads at the time of the test, though it might be fun to watch from a motorway bridge.

Actually, I got st loads from my gp at the request of the govt - endless reminders to get vaxxed. I also got st loads more from ‘NHSNoReply’ (no idea) addressing me as MISS Mahamud (I’m a white bloke) telling me to get vaxxed. Poor woman probably died as they fked up and she never got the messages Finally, I got a load more from ‘GPSurgery’ (no idea as it wasn’t my actual surgery) spamming me to get vaxxed too.

So overall, I would say yes the govt did indeed get us spammed

Edited by CoolHands on Friday 21st April 23:57

[CoolHands]

Rage? Exaggerate much?

[CoolHands]

bhstewie said:

Quite.

Anyone sensible would just phone the surgery and let them know they had the wrong number

Clearly some geniuses on this thread. It doesn’t show the multitude of texts on one screen shot does it, as they won’t all fit? Would have thought that was obvious….

And how could I phone ‘NHSNoReply’? There’s nothing or no one to phone see picture. I couldn’t block it as I didn’t know if I would, at some stage, need a real message meant for me, so I was stuck with receiving this crap.

You’re making yourselves looks silly to be honest.

[CoolHands]

Catastrophic Poo said:

Yeah that’s not really ‘being spammed’ is it.

Although I’m glad we know ‘you’re a white bloke so couldn’t be MISS Mahamud‘…

Do you think that is very likely? Obvs clutching at straws….

[CoolHands]

Keep doubling down. How do you know I didn’t delete some during that time? And well done for your investigative skills

[CoolHands]

Catastrophic Poo said:

CoolHands said:

Catastrophic Poo said:

Yeah that’s not really ‘being spammed’ is it.

Although I’m glad we know ‘you’re a white bloke so couldn’t be MISS Mahamud‘…

Do you think that is very likely? Obvs clutching at straws….

Just interesting on the skin colour point really.

Not really. but keep trying

[CoolHands]

tangerine_sedge said:

CoolHands said:

Keep doubling down. How do you know I didn’t delete some during that time? And well done for your investigative skills

I for one totally believe you, it's most likely that you deleted the other bazillion messages you got, but saved just these three for old times sake /sarcasm.

Or, a different period had more than that amount? Perhaps it varied over time. Or maybe I did delete some within the shown time period depending on my mood, as a human sometimes I do things irregularly. You see, there’s a lot of possibilities which is why some people are making themselves look silly.

[CoolHands]

bhstewie said:

I wouldn't spend an hour to be fair but I also wouldn't be bleating about it on an Internet forum I'd just delete the odd message that came through.

Rather than deleting loads and keeping three (or four) and posting screenshots on an Internet forum but only of the three (or four) I'd decided to keep.

And complaining when people read them.

Easy way and hard way and all that

I wish I was as smart as you

[CoolHands]

Greendubber said:

Flicking the 'hide alerts' button not an option?

I’ll be honest I don’t know what that does. I presume I would still have a little ‘1’ on my messages indicating a new message even if it stopped the new message flashing up on screen.

Anyway it’s all irrelevant it was simply to illustrate the ‘you won’t get spammed’ argument to demonstrate that actually, we did get spammed - take a look. Of course it was picked apart by clever PH detectives whose intellect I can only wonder at; I am now crestfallen.

[CoolHands]

bhstewie said:

I'm not smart I just don't get it if I'm honest.

Looks like they made a mistake with some contact details so you got a few messages intended for someone else.

Should they have an easy way to opt out? Yes they should.

I get stuff sent to me because some idiot can't spell their own email address.

Receipts for bike saddles and viagra (genuine not spam, no idea if the last bike saddle caused the problem) and I know he's looking at moving house as I keep getting confirmations of house viewings and I've emailed a couple of the estate agents to let them know and they've thanked me for it.

This just seems so damned trivial

yes they made a mistake. But as is your wont you double down on your clever solutions to put the poster down when that isn’t the point - I’m not looking for a solution, thankyou. It was illustrating the topic in discussion.

But in my opinion that’s your posting style as seen many times.

[CoolHands]

Mine went off early 2.59