Who knew? Emergency alert mobile phone test

[Deleted member 18243]

I'm sure the residents of Whaley Bridge, would have been very grateful for such a system, when the Toddbrook Reservoir was a risk of flooding the town.

Areas at risk of flooding already have alarms in place.

 

[ellal]

Our governments like emergencies.

Yep...

Just like those all those railway announcements...

'If you suspect it, report it'...

The thing is it's counter productive, as after a while people don't give a monkeys!

Might as well say 'Don't panic and always carry a towel'

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Well, if that was intended as a two minute warning of a nuclear attack, then it failed here. One Iphone went off at 4 minutes before the hour, an Android phone didn't trigger until 9 minutes after the hour. Perhaps the Iphone owners are more worthy of being given an earlier warning, so they can save themselves?

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

I'd like to know the means by which it was delivered - was this capability already built into my phone that I bought about 5 years ago, or did the government somehow manage to insert this feature without telling me?

My phone was bought sim-free, is owned outright, with generic firmware that was intended for a different country, with no operator branding.

My settings menu includes an emergency alert feature, the ringtone selected was just a simple "bidoo" sound. But I still got the siren sound that everyone else got, so I don't think this used the inbuilt feature it already had, it was something else.

The alerts don't worry me, the mechanism by which it was delivered does. What other features can be quietly popped onto my phone by the same means? Could this mechanism also be used by hackers and/or foreign states?

 

[Fred Blogs]

I'd like to know the means by which it was delivered - was this capability already built into my phone that I bought about 5 years ago, or did the government somehow manage to insert this feature without telling me?

My phone was bought sim-free, is owned outright, with generic firmware that was intended for a different country, with no operator branding.

My settings menu includes an emergency alert feature, the ringtone selected was just a simple "bidoo" sound. But I still got the siren sound that everyone else got, so I don't think this used the inbuilt feature it already had, it was something else.

The alerts don't worry me, the mechanism by which it was delivered does. What other features can be quietly popped onto my phone by the same means? Could this mechanism also be used by hackers and/or foreign states?

The answers to your questions are yes, yes and yes. It's been added surreptitiosly by the government, such as they are, and if you have a mobile phone then yes they can and do spy on you same with your computers and other tech. Did you not know what the cookies are for?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The answers to your questions are yes, yes and yes. It's been added surreptitiosly by the government, such as they are, and if you have a mobile phone then yes they can and do spy on you same with your computers and other tech.

Many other countries make use of the system, so it is installed by default by the phone manufacturers. The government can use it, but only if you permit it in the settings.

Did you not know what the cookies are for?

The cookies are to store your use of a website, so the site can save you entering information in the next time you go to the site, but site owners miss use them, to track the sites you visit and steer ads, based on what sites you have visited in the past.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Did you not know what the cookies are for?

Tinfoil hat nonsense. Do some homework before spouting rubbish, cookies definitely do not allow installation of software or capabilities without your permission. This sort of comment doesn't help those with genuine concerns about government snooping, it's ammunition to those who want to rubbish these sort of concerns, as everyone gets associated with this sort of nonsense.

I've now found the settings, quite tucked away under about 4 layers of the Settings menu. I take it back, it appears that my phone was built with this capability, so nothing was added. There are various tick boxes under "CMAS Settings".

Amusingly, I'm allowed to disable even "Severe" alerts but "Presidential" alerts are enabled and greyed out, so can't be disabled. I really hope this doesn't get used for random pronouncements by our unelected anti-democratic king. I'm worried that the system has been tested just before his coronation, perhaps we'll all be ordered to stand and wave a flag at the required time!

Seriously, I don't see the harm in this system at all. Hopefully not too many crashes and incidents were caused by it yesterday.

 

[Deleted member 221031]

Yesterdays "Special Alert" was a disaster which wasted {millions

The UK Government awarded the contract to Fujitsu who subsequently sub contracted the work to Indian company Infosys

Or so they say……

 

[Justin Passing]

Yesterdays "Special Alert" was a disaster which wasted {millions

The UK Government awarded the contract to Fujitsu who subsequently sub contracted the work to Indian company Infosys

Or so they say……

Does that explain why I get so many calls from a call centre in India telling me something terrible has happened to my car/broadband/ppi claim/computer? They get to hear about it it first?

 

[ericmark]

There are quite a few versions of gaelic including Welsh, what I wonder is how it works out which to send? I know my boss when some one tried selling us a reversing alert he pointed out beep beep beep is international so better then beware I am reversing.

Clearly the Scottish, Irish, Cornish, and Welsh do travel into England and of course each others countries, since born in Wales I am Welsh, but I don't speak Welsh, and as to written Welsh I tend to look at the first letter, and guess what it means with that and location, so it is on a building with two doors, and starts we D so that's likely the male toilet. Or written on road starts with A likely means slow down.

But the words of the alert were not that easy, my phone connects to my watch and PC, so in both cases I get the first few words, and have to decide if worth reading the rest, my PC failed to show the whole message how ever I tried to scroll down, I only found the English when I tried to copy and paste into a translator.

I find the same problem with road signs, if there was one in English and 100 years further on one in Welsh or other way around, I would be able to read, but by time I have reached the English bit, I have passed the sign.

 

[Doug99]

Yesterdays "Special Alert" was a disaster which wasted {millions

The UK Government awarded the contract to Fujitsu who subsequently sub contracted the work to Indian company Infosys

Or so they say……

It was a test ..............nothing more!

 

[Deleted member 221031]

It was a test ..............nothing more!

I think you’ve missed that point! The money could have stayed in the UK, instead of going to Sunak’s family.

Keep up

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Was the message actually in Welsh within Wales? If so then that's utterly stupid and clearly putting politics before safety and common sense. If so then did it also include a version in a modern language that normal people use?

But I suppose they think nothing of trashing their kids' futures by teaching their core subjects in Welsh, so this wouldn't surprise me.