Gumment Emergency Alerts to be sent to all UK smart phones.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64999417
Well - that's reassuring, isn't it?
Last edited by: Duncan on Tue 4 Apr 23 at 07:43
|
|
Reassuring? perhaps not but sensible, certainly.
|
|
AIUI some charities are warning that the alerts may identify hidden “emergency” phones used by vulnerable people and hidden from abusive partners.
|
|
That is a good point, and some are saying if it went off when they are driving it might scare them into an accident...
|
If they are that timid I don’t think they should be driving.
Anyway since you won t get an alarm if the phone is switched off or in aeroplane mode that’s easily sorted
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Tue 4 Apr 23 at 09:55
|
|
That's what i was going to write but I need to avoid being judgemental!!
|
I was sent an example of what to expect the other day. Trouble was, someone had edited it and dubbed in a couple having noisy "private time" together.
Actually, it was quite funny unless on the receiving end. Imagine opening the message on a bus or in a doctors waiting room.
|
>If they are that timid I don’t think they should be driving.
Exactly CGN.
Although I'm sure we can all dream up absurd scenarios where receiving a text might be inconvenient or worse, I think most people would welcome one warning them if they were in danger of being hit on the head by a screwdriver falling from the engine cowling of a Ryanair A380 because the drunken maintenance crew had forgotten to check it back in after celebrating Boris Johnson entering No10 again after a landslide Conservative win at the next General Election.
|
|
I can imagine being on a busy motorway where everyone's cruising at 70. How many of those around me wil be reaching for their phones to see what the alert was?
|
I don’t think the test will pose much risk. I read that the motorway signs will give advance warning in addition to its being all over the media.
I am more interested (not yet worried) in how it works in a live situation once it’s up and running. Driving along with real alerts pinging all and sundry will see a lot of people trying to access their phones or, more safely, pulling off to check what the issue is. Service areas will be swamped.
However these issues have presumably been encountered and addressed in other parts of the world.
|
I don't know what the emergency alert will be used for.
The only things I can sensibly imagine may be war, nuclear and biological leaks - hopefully very rare.
Bad and extreme weather does not suddenly happen but forecast hours or days ahead. Pandemics do not strike folk down with no warning.
Perhaps it will be like the motorway signs warning us of the blindingly obvious (it's raining hard, fog - slow down etc).
Or maybe to justify the expense of such a system we will be treated to frequent warnings of something. Or perhaps its a subterfuge for the sinister - with almost universal ownership of smart phones it can be used as a means of social control.
|
|
..it's going to interact with the chip inserted during the Covid vaccination(s)...
|
>> I don't know what the emergency alert will be used for.
Well, Terry, if you read the news item which is revealed if you click the link. Here is the link again:-
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64999417
You will see that there is a blurb about flooding and stuff.
|
Flooding - it's raining hard and has been for a few days.
You live in an area prone to flooding - check Environment Agency maps if you don't already know
The water in the local stream or river is rising. Local roads are beginning to get submerged to kerb level.
Smart phone klaxon sounds - "evacuate, evacuate" Those who haven't worked out that there is an imminent flood are doomed. Will the klaxon save them.
Doubtful - they are the same folk who having been told there is 6-12" of snow on the way assume supreme driving talent will avoid a cold night on the motorway. Ride e-bikes without helmet assuming brain damage happens to other folk. Regard a hammer as the solution, not the problem.
|
On the occasion when our old house flooded a bit, it did surprise us. It had rained heavily overnight, but it had stopped. Of course rivers are still rising and catchments filling with water from higher ground even after the rain stops.
It also transpired (although they still deny it) that British Waterways (now the Canal and River Trust) had released a great deal of water from their system, much of which ended up in the watercourse across the road from the house.
I doubt very much that we would get a warning if it happened again anyway. It's a local issue.
On the other hand, when the Somerset levels flood it would presumably be possible to give some hours' notice. There are a lot of remote sensors measuring levels and flow rates.
|
|
Yes, I remember the one time the f-i-l's bungalow was flooded. There was no warning and they weren't near any rivers or other waterways - or on much of a noticeable hill. I think just so much rain fell in such a short time that the drains couldn't cope, and the water just went across his front garden, under the front door into the house, and down the sideway. It was over fairly quickly but caused a fair bit of damage.
|
>> I don't know what the emergency alert will be used for.
How about gay russian men touring cathedral spires of england - sorry I mean KGB agents spreading Novichuck.
|
|
Other countries have this system for tornadoes, earthquakes etc. It makes sense for us to have it in place as well, even if there's no real need in the UK. One day there might be, and the powers that be would only get it in the neck if we didn't have it. You can't win.
|
I remember at one time suggestions that hiding a smartphone with a cheap contract sim in it could be a cheap way to have a tracker on your phone in case it got pinched.
Although since recent reports of trackers I have read suggest they might more effective than the real things. A Transit van was stolen locally and its last whereabouts was exactly 10 mins after it got stolen when the tracker in the van was disabled!
|
Emergency Alerts to be Sent to all UK Smart Phones - CGNorwich
