Wildfire phone alert was 'entirely appropriate', government says

Comments

• tal@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I don’t think that using this is a good idea unless there is a substantial probability that the owner of the phone needs to take action or be personally impacted. A tornado or flood warning, maybe.

  Nagging at people to be on good behavior just pisses them off.

  I remember during COVID-19 when my county health department (in the US) decided to keep sending sporadic alerts reminding people to social-distance. And used a robocaller to hit landlines with the same message. I was pretty disgusted. If there is a major regulatory change that affects everyone, okay, maybe then. If you’re just repeating a message reminsing pwople to social-distance for the fifth time in the hopes that more people will comply, that just makes me think that the alerting system needs to be taken out of your hamds.

  source

  • scratchee@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I think it depends on volume.

    Once or twice a year for arguably not too major things is better than never, because it helps test the system and people won’t get overwhelmed by 1 or 2 alerts a year. Like a fire drill, but maybe slightly more useful since it actually is providing some actual info hopefully.

    If you go higher than that, you need to start raising the bar so that you don’t (excepting the emergency action requirement you laid out)

    source
• bl4ckp1xx13@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This alert fucking pissed me right off. Firstly, how dare they think they have a right to send anything to MY fucking phone, sure, I’m a citizen of your country, that does NOT entitle you to my property (though they are very well trying to stop us having property).

  Second, you’re alerting me to wildfires that YOU CAUSED, unblocking North Sea drilling, not pushing on for net-zero, continuing to integrate polluting power into our grid, and letting thousands of vehicles sit idle on poorly planned and maintained roads. Why the FUCK do I have to bend over backwards and restrict my activity when you all get to sit around, rape children, suck the wealth out of anyone and everything to fund more and more genocide, and rob the Earth of everything it’s got? FUCK OFF.

  May the wildfires burn strong and bright through your luxury estates and institutions of oppression.

  source
• givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I don’t get why it’s “all or nothing”…

  They can push silent notifications first, have a “reply Y within 24hrs to prevent further notices”

  And accomplish the same thing.

  There’s no reason to jump straight to the loud ass “the sky is falling” notifications that override silent mode.

  source

  • DakRalter@thelemmy.club ⁨38⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    This is what I’m thinking.

    I wouldn’t have minded a push notification.

    But a freaking klaxon just to tell me not to use a disposable barbecue that I have no intention of buying? Some of us are already of a nervous disposition, we don’t need blaring alarms coming out of nowhere to give words of advice. Naff off with that crap. Klaxon warnings should be for if a wildfire has actually reached my street.

    I’ve turned off the warnings because this is how they choose to use it, so well done, uk gov.

    source
• DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The damn things should be opt in. It’s my choice to take the risk of not getting an alert.

  Considering most of us are surrounded by people with phones, many of them will go off, and we’ll learn about it that way, anyway.

  source

  • Zombie@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Agreed. Unfortunately it isn’t, so instead opt out

    www.gov.uk/alerts/opting-out

    source

    • tal@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      The problem I have is that I think that the alerting feature has cases where it’s really important.

      I remember a story a while back about a German town that flooded after severe, unexpected rains meant that an upstream dam was at risk of failure and had to release large amounts of water.

      The authorities knew that the flood was coming and had a small amount of time to warn people, but didn’t reach many people. As I recall, they didn’t the “alert everyone in an area system” thing, but used mass-sending SMSes and similar, whuch take time to go out and don’t have the same audible alarm. Many people did not get the alert.

      searches

      theguardian.com/…/german-villages-could-be-left-w…

      German flood alert system criticised for ‘monumental failure’

      Questions raised over lack of warning as death toll passes 150 and villages are left without drinking water, power or gas

      The head of Germany’s federal office of civil protection and disaster assistance appeared to shift the blame to local authorities. “The warning infrastructure as such wasn’t our problem, but the question of how sensitive the public authorities and the population are in their response”, said the agency’s president, Armin Schuster.

      Schuster told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that digital warnings, such as through warning apps, text messages or emails, did not always reach all those at risk. Instead, he called for an investment programme to increase the number of flood-warning sirens in areas that could see more floods in the coming years.

      Now, that is a legitimate example of where I very much want to have the government have the ability to reach me via pretty much any way possible. This is the sort of thing that such an alerting system exists for. The alert has immediacy, and must be dealt with now. It is important to the individual recieving it, provides new information that they will very probably want to have, and could not act in the absence of. Alternatives are not nearly as good.

      The problem is that for this sort of system to work, it requires that the authorities exhibit great restraint in use of their power to interrupt everything, everywhere in an area, immediately, and seize phone owners attention.

      source