Mobile Emergency Alert System

[L3moning]

They fucked up by not making use of the features built into smartphones before

Well exactly. This has been a thing in the US and Japan for years.

 

[MsGilmore]

Tesco makes most of its income by selling data
Tesco sells details of your shopping habits for £53m | Daily Mail Online
It's sort of silly given that the data isn't really the same as that collected online by social media platforms/Google though

It’s not personal data though. People have nothing better to do than create conspiracy theories in their heads!
- - -
It made me jump because it was a minute early!
To me it is the equivalent of an air raid siren. A lot of the outrage speaks of our privilege really.

 

[Yel]

Possibly with the weather changes in recent years we may start to experience more - Last year there were 2 wildfires in my area and I am very middle England

I think there's going to be a lot more wildfires in the UK. Spain was having them in February which was quite unusual and parts of the UK are still in drought now.

People can be quite blase about stuff like wildfires, but if you've ever been in one it's no joke. The more information and notice the better.

 

[monga]

I think it’s done in batches. Mine (iPhone) went off at 14:59. Husband’s (who was with me) Android went off a minute or 2 later. Then we went into a shop and someone in there’s went off at 15:06. Heard a few go off at different times as we were walking around Leeds city centre.

ETA: Sorry I speed read your comment and jumped in, but you make sense

Seems they’re looking into why there were so many discrepancies in the alert times and people not getting it at all.

Emergency alert: Millions receive message and alarm but test failed to send to some mobile users

Once fully up and running, the emergency alerts are designed for use in crises like extreme weather, flooding, and wildfires.

news.sky.com

 

[emm]

Oh dear

View attachment 3703160

"Nanny state", an alert warning you that doesn't oblige you to do anything is hardly a nanny state. It not working is one thing but the daily fail is a total joke of a paper

 

[Rockin' Robin]

Same re difficulty turning it off advance of test and have same phone as you. I checked out the online explanations. I went into my general settings as that seemed to be what the daily mail was saying.

If you go into where you send text messages there are 3 dots in right hand corner. Go into settings there and you will find emergency alerts.

Dont let people make you feel bad about it I can programme in basic, basic and html and I never found the alert settings until yesterday.

Thank you for this information, and for your constructive post in generel. I have now turned off the emergency text alerts. Will the settings in the text notifications, also disable the audio alerts though?

 

[monga]

It's so frustrating that Fujitsu continue to be so successful in public sector bids mainly due to their size I'm guessing, especially given their massive mess ups in the past.

Are they still in partnership with Sunak’s in-laws/ wife? Maybe that’s why

 

[Jelly Bean]

Is this a form of (un)natural selection?
A few huddled in the nuclear shelters by now

 

[emm]

I will 100% forget about this on Sunday, wonder why my phone is being weird, and think no more about it.

Or you might be like half the country last time that seemingly didn't get it

 

[mcfeez]

I have a Galaxy S8, my partner has a newer version. We both searched for the switch off feature, but could not find it on our phones. I think this is another aspect that has really angered me, we were not given a choice.

The information for how to turn these off is easily found.

 

[mcfeez]

Are they still in partnership with Sunak’s in-laws/ wife? Maybe that’s why

Do you mean Infosys? I'm dubious about that as they are a huge company with tons of partners, including a lot of of software companies other than Fujitsu.

 

[Merpedy]

I’d argue that it doesn’t have to work for absolutely everyone to be fair

Chances are that if it doesn’t reach you then you’ll get news through other people or the news themselves which then sort of does its job

it’s not exactly for nuclear attacks as its most likely to be used for extreme weather

 

[monga]

Just because you're not likely to experience it doesn't mean that no one needs it. Plenty of people live near rivers or the sea and the alerts would likely only be if there's a 100% chance of flooding and a danger to life caused by it

Missile alerts normally get used to tell people to seek shelter. We're not exactly a country that's at war or have an annoying neighbour like North Korea, so we wouldn't get these alerts and even if we did... we'd be completely useless because we're not educated

It does strike as significant that the system is being rolled out during a war in Europe but it also seems like a system we should have had ages ago just in case in general

Wouldn’t that fall to local gov to issue them, why would I want to know if other parts of the UK were about to be flooded

 

[Avenged7Fold]

kinda sad that i didn’t drop my roast dinner from fright and the microchip in my vaccine didn’t ignite superpowers like the internet promised me would happen 🥲

I was expecting buildings to crumble and my house to spontaneously……
Argh it went off while I was typing this

 

[monga]

Do you mean Infosys? I'm dubious about that as they are a huge company with tons of partners, including a lot of of software companies other than Fujitsu.

Well you never know ? it wouldn’t be the first time !

Infosys - Newsroom | Press Releases | Infosys partners with Fujitsu to enhance functionality of product suite

Infosys partners with Fujitsu to enhance functionality of product suite and co-development by bringing in new technology and IT skills.

www.infosys.com

 

[Monkeybum]

I was at a West End matinee and we all had to switch our phones off. Was quite excited at 3pm that some people wouldn't have but disappointingly everyone behaved.

I switched my phone on straight after the show (about an hr later) and got the alert at 7.42 when I was in a taxi home

 

[MsGilmore]

The test may have been to find the flaws with older phones/networks

I think it sort of depends on the nature of the alert too. Though presumably you have friends/family in the area that would contact you or you’d just hear it around you (assuming it’s local). If national, there’s probably a whole procedure for every channel switching to the news or some screen or something

I don’t think it’s going to work on older phones because they’re not enabled to allow the technology I guess. I read this morning that it won’t work on phones which don’t have 4G and upwards and phones which are only Wi-Fi enabled. But as you said, these things would likely be on the news or hopefully the local community would look out for each other so that everyone is aware should it go off for whatever reason.

 

[monga]

Nxt one coming soon

 

[kev1974]

The alerts archive on my phone (android, at least a few years old, wasn't a latest model even when new) is buried several levels below the sound settings under the alerts on/off switch, similar logic might apply on other types of phone?

Nothing I can find on iphone

The "Emergency Alerts" on/off switches are buried right at the bottom of the "Notifications" menu but there's no further menu to go and find the past alerts.

I do think this is a massive shortcoming of the system, you should be able to easily find past alerts in case they do contain critical info.

I would reply to Keir Starmer's tweet about it, but as per all his tweets it would be buried under the 1,500 responses and memes telling him he's a massive wanker

Maybe as @Miss.Chanandler.Bong says, a real alert can't be cleared so easily.

 

[SaLou]

Got it this time. I was expecting it to be louder!