Poll: Public emergency alerts to be sent to all UK mobile phones

[Johno please?]

You’re doing it again

Youre triggered again.

 

[Hagar]

Emergency alert! Milkshake in Wiltshire.

 

[Jokester]

Did find this mildly annoying a few weeks ago in Colorado when it went off for “snow”.

 

[Ice Tea]

'All personnel take shelter immediately'

A false missile alert was broadcast in Hawaii urging people to take shelter.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[darael]

If I start getting messages about weather alerts and missing people, I will turn it off. Which, admittedly, defeats the object, but I don't like spam.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

I thought you had to sign up for the Covid alerts or at least NHS have your number, I also don't remember it being an actual "Alert" where you have to acknowledge it, covid alerts were just texts weren't they ?

It was an SMS text yeah something like "Message from HM Government: You must stay at home blah blah" something like that didn't sign up for anything I remember thinking how the heck did they get my number... I do get alerts/notifications from GP surgery so maybe that, I've no idea.

 

[aVdub]

The only fault I can see with this, is if the message alert stated something like "Stay away from the uninhabited island of Teän because it will be hit by a small meteor on Monday" you can almost guarantee 10's of thousands would try to get there to watch it, and then the families of the dead would blame the government and brexit.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Didn't we have this 'tech' during the COVID outbreak?

Aye they did. Everyone got a COVID text. I've also had one from the energy company when storm arwen hit and knocked some power out up here albeit I was personally affected by any cuts. So not entirely sure why some folk are heading down a dowiehole of conspiracy

I didn't get one of those. What did it say?

I had the text. It's not the original handset that received the SMS. I have moved on 2 handsets since then but Samsung Smart Switch transferred the messages onwards and so I kept the txt as as souvenir

 

[Efour]

97% chance you will have the flu for 5 days.
Hide
Destroy your children's futures and gravely wound the present.

 

[dlockers]

I genuinely can't see a reason we need this in the UK.

Come on Hades, we all know you are an aspirational red Piller nowadays. What's your theory for this system?

 

[Trifid]

I genuinely can't see a reason we need this in the UK.

Better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it. Also best to check it works every now and then. I wouldn't want it to be used as frequently as some have commented on.

 

[dlockers]

97% chance you will have the flu for 5 days.
Hide
Destroy your children's futures and gravely wound the present.

Honestly without the affects of COVID I would have never got to know my daughter, pretty much. Now I get to see her almost every single day. Viva la COVID.

 

[Stumble Bum]

I've turned this nonsense off on my phone. Thankfully there's an option for it.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it. Also best to check it works every now and then. I wouldn't want it to be used as frequently as some have commented on.

This. Honestly why do people get their knickers in a twist over something like this? So you might get a text once in a while, so what? Just ignore it and go about your day.

 

[aVdub]

This. Honestly why do people get their knickers in a twist over something like this? So you might get a text once in a while, so what? Just ignore it and go about your day.

Because it makes for interesting reading, when you read the story about John and his family that turned off the alerts and missed the one about the pack of lions that escaped from the local zoo and were heading towards the village of MiddleTwatt.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

They can send alerts to me if they want. It better be that my life is in danger otherwise I will just fill out a complaint form.

 

[Ice Tea]

so what? Just ignore it and go about your day.

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

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Decision to test the system is announced just as China visits Russia for a show of solidarity.

Hmm

 

[Werewolf]

It was an SMS text yeah something like "Message from HM Government: You must stay at home blah blah" something like that didn't sign up for anything I remember thinking how the heck did they get my number... I do get alerts/notifications from GP surgery so maybe that, I've no idea.

IIRC that wasn't a true alert in the sense that they're talking about with this.
From memory it was basically all the UK mobile providers sending out an SMS to every active number, so it went out over the space of a day or two.

A true alert system is "broadcast" to every device in a certain area, does not rely on individually sent messages, and activates a specific API in the phone OS that IIRC usually triggers a siren tone and a specific style of message, hence the bit about you not being able to do anything else with the phone until you've acknowledged it.
Basically it's the 21st century version of the US Emergency Broadcast System.

 

[adidan]

Are they expecting more massive solar mass ejections like the one that caused the mass of auroras the other week?

That was heading away from earth, one heads towards us we may get a preemptive text to tell us to turn everything off and go back in time 200 years - hoard your turnips now!