To think there’s something a bit sinister about the Government Emergency Alert test on 7th September?

[ThisAmberSignal]

I know it’s being pitched as just a routine safety check, “nothing to worry about” but I can’t help but feel uneasy. Why now? Why the sudden push to roll this out and get everyone’s phones buzzing at the same time?
Is it really just a public safety measure or could there be something more going on here - surveillance, control, a soft rollout of something bigger?

AIBU to feel suspicious… or do others get the same vibe?

Being concerned about the government's ability to override your phone without your consent is funny to you? I bet you think implementing digital ID systems or the Online Harms Bill are fantastic ideas, too. 🙄

It isn't really overriding my phone. The system isn't sending a message to my particular number. It's a message sent via the cell towers to any phones that happen to be in the area.
If you don't consent there's the option to switch the alert off anyway.
Do you think it's also government interference if you are watching TV and the programme is interrupted for a news flash?
(No I don't agree with digital IDs actually)

lol 😂

The Netherlands has been doing it for years and the civil defence alarm goes off the first Monday of the month at 12:00 pm for over two decades.

No consensual system should be an opt-out by default; a ton of people aren't going to know how to disable that function. And yes, the government is indeed overriding your phone by triggering that function, even if it is en-masse.

And no, I'm not a hundred year old Boomer who still watches terrestrial television. But if I were, I'd think it would be pretty weird if the government could potentially hijack your set to display psychological warfare 'warnings', like it did during the Pandemic.

4 mobiles in this house but no alarms. Not sure why, possibly because I only turn mobile data on if out and about.

Why now? Why not, why other times they've done it? Covid has shown that mass instructions might be needed, why not have a means to do them?

Iceland too - we had a "don't be an idiot and get too close" warning when the volcano went off while we were there. It was in multiple languages and, as I remember it, said there could be problems with x so reduce y just in case.

I got the alert this time my younger son did not

Dd got the one in Wales last year for the storm? It was good because she was stuck in work and they dont have the news on in work and she rarely pays attention anyway 🙄

Jesus, you do remember what contradictory, socially-destructive and often insane 'instructions' the populace were given right? That wasn't just a mass hallucination we all experienced right?

I dont get why people are paranoid about this. Im sure if something was to happen then people who have turned it off would be questioning why we weren't told sooner.
I was in Egypt last year and there was an earthquake. A loud bang and then shaking. Never been in that situation before, didn't understand what the bang was. I got an alert on my phone about the earthquake.

News flashes have existed on TV since.... actually I don't know.
The BBC possibly did one in 1939 when the War was announced - although the famous radio broadcast was a scheduled event.
TV service was shut down during the war so people went to the cinema to watch the newsreels.
If there was an air raid a message would flash up in screen.
So "the government" have been overriding viewing since 1940 ish at least.
However you do realise this alert system isn't just for "warfare". It's mostly going to be used for several weather warnings - as 4 out of the 5 times the system has actually been used it was for exactly that.

I was actually being sarcastic; but we certainly did have early warning systems on the radio and TV during the Cold War, when they were the primary media that connected most people to the world. (Not to mention air raid siren systems.) It’s quite normal for countries to have emergency alert systems that could be used for war, terrorist attack, weather, earthquake, all sorts of things.

Here it’s most likely to be used for weather or terrorist attacks; but there are all sorts of potential applications. I for one would appreciate a four minute warning of being nuked. And maybe if aliens land it would be useful, too?

I happened to be there last Monday and it went off, no biggie!

Gosh, I wonder why we didn't have a smartphone-based alert system during the Cold War?

Leaving aside WTH use is a four minute warning one problem is on today's performance your four minute warning would become three or two or one or none at all....if the system is to be of any use in situations where time is of the essence it sounds like a lot of improvements need to be made...

Other issue I have with the system is I'm really not sure it should be used routinely for warnings such as those put out by the Met office, unless there's a last minute change increase in forecast severity on a local level.

If it starts being used by the Government or Government agencies to promulgate almost routine "mind how you go" or "have you checked the weather forecast?" type messages then people really will be turning alerts off or cancelling alerts without reading.

Oh God, you are so absurdly stupid. Talk about the point going over your head.

"Needmorelego
News flashes have existed on TV since.... actually I don't know.
The BBC possibly did one in 1939 when the War was announced - although the famous radio broadcast was a scheduled event.
TV service was shut down during the war so people went to the cinema to watch the newsreels.
If there was an air raid a message would flash up in screen.
So "the government" have been overriding viewing since 1940 ish at least.
However you do realise this alert system isn't just for "warfare". It's mostly going to be used for several weather warnings - as 4 out of the 5 times the system has actually been used it was for exactly that."

Your point is, and was, a non-sequitur, since the problem is the difference between a newsflash being given by a supposedly independent broadcaster and the British government reaching into your phone and potentially propagandising you with crap advice from their Nudge Unit. Say, like in the event of a Global Pandemic to stay inside forever to save the NHS and granny. Not that such things could ever happen with your perfect little Government.

If it was about floods, the damn system would have been operational long ago - it was directly prompted by the Pandemic and, very obviously, the current global instability. Stop gaslighting yourself and others.

And again, because a precedent exists, that does not make it positive. For example, ID cards existed during WW2, that doesn't make them a positive or desirable precedent for pushing an ID system now in Britain. But you can be sure that government, will be eager to use such bad ideas to push ever greater encroachment into your life.

lol 😂

@CynicalOrange just stop.
It's getting boring.
Personally....I am perfectly happy for the government to inform me if my life is potentially in danger.
They can use a TV newsflash, a loudspeaker or my phone. I don't care.
If you aren't interested then deactivate the alert system on your phone.
I'm keeping it thanks.

I’m going to retry this.

Back when I first moved into the house I’m in now smart phone where nowhere near as common as they are now. Nearby there was a place that dealt with chemicals of some sort. Every house near by had a card explaining what to do if the siren sounded. (Close doors and windows, stay inside, don’t collect children from school).

In the last 10 years the siren has been decommissioned, mainly because they don’t handle chemical like that anymore, but if we needed an alert it would come to our phones, like today.

These alerts haven’t happened before the last 5 years because not everyone had smart phones. We used to talk about the 5 minute warning. It’s the same thing.

The standard thing that CynicalOrange and their ilk always do is paint everything as entirely binary. Either you think the government (which for a start they always consider as one, constant set of people) are entirely benevolent, honest, kind and selfless or they are an evil hoard of shadowy forces hellbent on using psychological warfare on the population for their nefarious purposes and laughing manically at the people as they manipulate them into obedience.

There's never any consideration of the fact that politicians and governments make multiple decisions all the time. Some are made with more altruistic ideals than others, some are made with a lack of information, some are made cynically and for selfish ends etc.

Most people who aren't conspiracy theorists are able to appreciate that it all comes with nuance and the fact that there were some really dodgy deals made around PPE in covid and some politicians profited who shouldn't have done doesn't mean that the emergency warning system isn't exactly what is says on the tin.

In the current broken down, laissez-faire state of our country, where national and local government have been stripped of funding and rendered incompetent and ineffective, I’d appreciate a bit more intervention from government in the daily life of the U.K., to be honest.

Why are people who don't accept the paranoid ramblings of tin-foil hatters always "sheep"?

Well I think I have worked out what this test has achieved.

By reading all the online posts about it, this alert will enable the government to calculate the sheer number of fuckwitted conspiracy theorist loons and gullible dimwits there are in this country.