Public emergency alerts to be sent to all UK mobile phones

[Mr Moofo]

I do love this place, some of you are scared of everything outside your front door, the government are out to steal your jam, Brexit stole your future, rich people are plundering your pensions, the Russians are buying too many houses in London, etc, but you're not worried about t'puters and all that modern shite

And everyone is happy to have Tesco Clubcard
Now, I wonder what information that might have

[cheb]

Having looked into how to disable this on my phone it seems I don't have the options suggested. If it's important enough to get that high through the system I'll probably have been told by the coastguard anyway and probably indirectly by the local health board.

It's all very well saying that these systems are in place in other countries but how well they work and what the residents think of them is rarely commented upon in the same article.

Is it a big problem that your phone has the facility/ability to do this though ? I can honestly say i simply don't care either way.

No problem at all, I'll leave it active on the other phone. Oddly I can't find the emergency option when looking through settings but it's there if I use search. Looks to be very Americanised, Presidential alerts being the first option.

It'll be interesting to see if it get abused, 'If it saves one life', naming storms, suggesting we put on a jumper if the weather's cold or a coat if it's raining sort of tediousness.

[mangocrazy]

Give me a break. Your paranoia is showing. And you have no idea what my digital footprint looks like, and neither does your mythical African scammer.

Yeah I go through life being paranoid

Mythical scammers, lol.

The cost of cybercrime in 2022 was estimated at 8.4 trillion US dollars. It’s estimated to rise to $10.5 trillion by 2025.
You absolute whopper.

It was all going so well until you started on the insults. Oh well. Nothing much changes.

As with 'real life' crime the cybercrime spectrum varies from the trivial to the truly mind-boggling, but you seem to be conflating all cybercrime into one paranoia-inducing lump. At one end of the spectrum we have your mythical African scammer pumping out loads of 'Nigerian prince' emails, equivalent in real life to someone trying your door to see if it's locked or not. At the other end we have government agencies who have the tools to crash power grids, markets and anything digitally-connected.

Anyone with a few active brain cells should be able to defeat the former, no-one really stands a chance of resisting the latter unless they've lived off-grid all their life. The majority of cybercrime is targetted at the low-hanging fruit - maximum reward for minimum effort. The type of high level stuff you referenced would be targetted at a level well above anyone on this forum (unless we have any closet billionaires who are keeping schtum). It's all proportional - the more you have and the more you flash it about, the more likely you are to be a target. Simples.

For most of us it's a case of doing due diligence on all digital correspondence, keeping your security updates, AV and firewalls up to date and staying out of the seedier corners of t'Internet. But then I'm sure you already know that.

[mangocrazy]

Gone fishing?

[MrLongbeard]

I'll leave it turned on, right up until it starts sending amber it might drizzle a bit alerts, at such time it'll be turned off and the phone kept in a crisp packet so they can't track me.

[mangocrazy]

Gone fishing?

Yeah, I'm so paranoid that I spend my time on the internet trying to convince people that cybercrime is real and that governments have very capable electronic exploitation teams.

I appear to be good at it though, you went from "It's all a bit 'Bourne', isn't it?" to "we have government agencies who have the tools to crash power grids" and "no-one really stands a chance of resisting".

Sounds a bit bipolar to me but I'll take what I can get

I'll take that as a yes.

[Rockburner]

Gone fishing?

Yeah, I'm so paranoid that I spend my time on the internet trying to convince people that cybercrime is real and that governments have very capable electronic exploitation teams.

I appear to be good at it though, you went from "It's all a bit 'Bourne', isn't it?" to "we have government agencies who have the tools to crash power grids" and "no-one really stands a chance of resisting".

Sounds a bit bipolar to me but I'll take what I can get

I'll take that as a yes.

He caught you, didn't he.

[mangocrazy]

Gone fishing?

I'll take that as a yes.

He caught you, didn't he.

Not for the first time He is well-practised in the art. He does own a yacht, after all...

[Kneerly Down]

Turned off on my phone. I'm taking a service on that day at that time....

I'm possibly leading a service as well at the same time.
Luckily (?) it's in a church that hasn't had mobile phone signal since it was built c.150 years ago.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Well that's just poor forward planning on the builder's part.

[mangocrazy]

Today I had (on the same phone) a government announcement of bad weather from the UAE (alerts are already a thing there). An announcement that United Utilities are fixing a leak close to our UK house. An alert from my bank because my daughter is in South America smashing my credit card. Several Siri suggestions. A google camera alert of a fox in my garden. A Nest message alerting me to a doorbell ringing whilst I'm out, then a conversation with a postman. An Alexa alert because my son is using my account somewhere else. Various banks announcing payments and DDs that are due or have gone out.
Etc.

I read ages ago that the amount of news in an average daily paper is more than one man would have received over his whole life in the 16th century.
The amount of information from my phone in just one day is probably more than I'd get in weeks just a few years ago.

But presumably you signed up for all these alerts, so you could also turn them off?

[cheb]

Today I had (on the same phone) a government announcement of bad weather from the UAE (alerts are already a thing there). An announcement that United Utilities are fixing a leak close to our UK house. An alert from my bank because my daughter is in South America smashing my credit card. Several Siri suggestions. A google camera alert of a fox in my garden. A Nest message alerting me to a doorbell ringing whilst I'm out, then a conversation with a postman. An Alexa alert because my son is using my account somewhere else. Various banks announcing payments and DDs that are due or have gone out.
Etc.

I read ages ago that the amount of news in an average daily paper is more than one man would have received over his whole life in the 16th century.
The amount of information from my phone in just one day is probably more than I'd get in weeks just a few years ago.

Would you say the UAE weather warning is reasonable?

[Ant]

Yeah but most of those are text messages rather than alerts which take over your device until acknowledged innit.

[cheb]

Would you say the UAE weather warning is reasonable?

Unnecessary for me because I'm always watching the weather for sailing anyway, but when it rains here it's biblical, people get sent home from work early and stuff, so for some it's a very handy warning. It's not really a big issue though, the phone pings, I read it, then acknowledge it and it goes away.

I'll upload so you can see what it looks like...

Thanks, that's similar to the ones sent out up here for same sort of reasons.

[gremlin]

I was snoozing in the back of a cab once, whilst away with Mrs. G. in Abu Dhabi, when both our phones made the most God-awful noises. Alerts from the govt. re bad weather.

I kid you not when I say it was spitting down at worst.

I expect nothing less than the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for such a warning next time.

[Cousin Jack]

I was snoozing in the back of a cab once, whilst away with Mrs. G. in Abu Dhabi, when both our phones made the most God-awful noises. Alerts from the govt. re bad weather.

I kid you not when I say it was spitting down at worst.

I expect nothing less than the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for such a warning next time.

Obviously the met people in Abu Dhabi have been trained by our Meteorological Office. If in doubt issue a warning, what colour shall we use next?

[asmethurst99]

Japan has public address systems - they ring out at midday with a short tune - kids use it (used to) as the time to go home for lunch.
They are used for typhoon warnings and flash flood warnings - there’s also a system of texts.

[Greenman]

I was snoozing in the back of a cab once, whilst away with Mrs. G. in Abu Dhabi, when both our phones made the most God-awful noises. Alerts from the govt. re bad weather.

I kid you not when I say it was spitting down at worst.

I expect nothing less than the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for such a warning next time.

Do you have warnings in banks when a bank manager is trying to offer you a loan you cannot afford?

[Ant]

I was snoozing in the back of a cab once, whilst away with Mrs. G. in Abu Dhabi, when both our phones made the most God-awful noises. Alerts from the govt. re bad weather.

I kid you not when I say it was spitting down at worst.

I expect nothing less than the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for such a warning next time.

Do you have warnings in banks when a bank manager is trying to offer you a loan you cannot afford?

Yes, these warnings are built into those people who are able to decide for themselves how numbers work and for those who can take some self responsibility instead of blaming others.

[Greenman]

I was snoozing in the back of a cab once, whilst away with Mrs. G. in Abu Dhabi, when both our phones made the most God-awful noises. Alerts from the govt. re bad weather.

I kid you not when I say it was spitting down at worst.

I expect nothing less than the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for such a warning next time.

Do you have warnings in banks when a bank manager is trying to offer you a loan you cannot afford?

Yes, these warnings are built into those people who are able to decide for themselves how numbers work and for those who can take some self responsibility instead of blaming others.

What about for those people who seek advise from their bank manager for such loans?