It's a good idea and I'm amazed how people let their imaginations go into overdrive so easily.
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SubscribeThe first conspiracy theory regarding the new government severe event alerts appeared on my Facebook feed today. It was posted by a friend who is a Covid denyer and moreover is a QAnon type theorist and often posts things saying Wake Up People!. This lady is very sweet and kind but I think has little going on in her life and has been drawn to this. I'm always willing to hear both sides but this particular rant that was posted was a guy saying its the government's way of testing the populations compliance and once you get this alert (on 23rd April), if you don't hit REPLY, your phone is disabled until you do. He goes on to say that your number has been supplied to the government illegally by your provider. The chap also said this has never been done elsewhere. I've looked into this on various sites, and you don't hit reply. You hit OK to clear it....but its true that functionality is affected until you do that. Its not true that it's not been used elsewhere as several countries use the same or similar. No one has been given your number, phone masts just send out a message and if you have a 4 or 5 g phone, you will receive the alert. The conspiracy theory is it will be used to tell everyone that all the banks have crashed, The Great Reset. The government say its for emergency services and government alerts such as wildfires. We for several years have received flood alerts so I expect its something similar but I'm sure we signed up for that. On this alarm, you need to go into settings and disable. I don't believe the conspiracy theory, but not sure how I feel about the forced nature of the alerts....me and the mister feel its more likely being brought online due to world events. I was just wondering how many Gransnetters will keep them and how many will disable them? www.gov.uk/alerts
It's a good idea and I'm amazed how people let their imaginations go into overdrive so easily.
I was in a train crossing the US, and my phone told me there was a tornado warning. It had got quite dark suddenly, but sadly there no sign of the tornado. I think it’s a good system, how else would the public be alerted in an emergency?
Well said Elegran
For those worried that the alert will keep on deafening them until they click "OK", or that their details have been revealed by their provider, the Govt page www.gov.uk/alerts says that "The sound and vibration will last for about 10 seconds."
and
"The government does not need to know your phone number or location to send you an alert."
It also says a lot more about the alerts, and is worth reading. It is always best to go to the horse's mouth and not rely on information passed on like Chinese Whispers.
www.gov.uk/alerts
Where I grew up we had frequent warning sirens. For all the people worried about anxiety etc, using a phone system is just a modern day equivalent of something that many of us lived with for years.
Further back, huge bonfires would be lit. A quick alert on your phone is far better for the environment and will reach more people.
We live in such safe and stress free times now, I think people have lost sight of what actual danger is. No worry about Vikings landing at night, no worry about a French or Spanish invasion, no worries about when the next plague would appear (Covid was far less serious). We have the science and technology to predict extreme weather events and many former fatal illnesses can be easily cured. It's actually a very cushy life we lead nowadays.
I find it incredulous that anyone believes our current government is capable of organising anything beyond a simple test. They are in no way competent enough to organise anything on the scale of the supposed conspiracy theories.
I'm in favour of the test, having a relative whose life was saved when an alert was given in another country. Some people died but my relative was able to get to a place of safety.
songstress60 You will not receive messages. Your phone will just ring. It is simply the 21st century update on the old-fashioned Civil Defence siren. It will warn you of any emergency from floods to, as spottybook suggests a nuclear emergency.
It is then your choice to ignore it or find out what the emergency is.
My immediate thought was also a nuclear alert.
I will delete any government messages just like I did when the Covid app and NHS app appeared on my phone. Too much state control and Covid was definitely NO accident.
Janiepops
Do you think it might be to warn us if the barking mad Putin sets off a nuclear attack? Give us a chance to get home to family?
Because to warn a whole nation, the mobile phone is the nearest thing to almost total coverage that we have…
Tell me I’m completely wrong please….
That was the first thing I thought of, Janiepops World events seem to be changing very quickly - and not in a good way!
By the way, he is silly because he lit it in the first place, a habit of his.
I have found them useful. It went off and marked our address as an incident recently so we returned home and found our silly young neighbour putting out a fire next to our backyard fence. Someone had reported it, thankfully. You get to choose the range here so I asked for 10 kms which I may change down to 5 because I am not that interested in floods/ fires/ incidents that far away.
I dont think you'll have time to go anywhere if Putin sets of nukes.O corse our great and good .Politicians and royals will be safe they all have bunkers ..but the rest of us dont count in their lives so we can just fry like the good people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ...innocents murdered even though their Emperor had surrendered .
Do you think it might be to warn us if the barking mad Putin sets off a nuclear attack? Give us a chance to get home to family?
Because to warn a whole nation, the mobile phone is the nearest thing to almost total coverage that we have…
Tell me I’m completely wrong please….
As I said no different to those old Civil Defence sirens. We used to live near Broadmoor and if any one escaped from there, a siren would go off. I think the siren is no more and a system not dissimalar to this is used to alert people to an escape.
We were house hunting in a village near there and were told about the siren system - didn't they have a test siren warning once a week?
It's not a high pitched siren type of noise - more a mid range sort of ring tone. It's designed to draw your attention to the message not scare the pants off you!!
As I understand it, it’s a one-off alert, which you can switch off permanently. They have it in, I think, France. While I don’t think this is a sinister plot, always wise to question authorities and their motives. They don’t always have the ordinary person’s interests at heart. Vis some of the bills Tories are bringing in to shut down protests and aspects of press reporting.
I am very happy to have an alarm system like this. I live in a flood prone area and although I do get flood warnings. To know that a general warning would go out if flooding started would be very useful.
As I said no different to those old Civil Defence sirens. We used to live near Broadmoor and if any one escaped from there, a siren would go off. I think the siren is no more and a system not dissimalar to this is used to alert people to an escape.
It is merely using modern technology . Back in pre-technology dates people used to light huge beacons to raise alarms for potential national emergencies: invasions like the Armada and other armed incursions.
I had a friend who was into conspiracy theories big-time. I haven’t seen or heard from her since the alien spaceship landed on Uxbridge Common …..
Absolutely turned off. No consultation about this. My phone my privacy
Thanks dotpocka, I should have looked it up myself. I have a secret true crime podcast addiction so I hear it mentioned a lot.
the link was@@$%U&
amberalert.ojp.gov/statistics
galaxy>>> amberalert.ojp.gov/statistics
It's also far from friendly for those with autism, hypersensitive hearing and those who are vulnerable and may think their phone has been hacked this could put many lives at risk because ultimately not everyone will know that it's a government thing and they could panic and refuse to press anything Mensing they are unable to use phone for emergency measure until they do. The government need to sort this out long before this alert is issued.
From what I've heard already I feel it could be dangerous to be honest. Everyone's phone going off high pitched siren at the same time. Causing mass hysteria and worse some will be driving and unable to respond and could potentially have accidents. I'm all for a warning text etc but a siren that prevents you doing anything until you click ok is a bit much. At least drivers can ignore a text briefly until they are safe to respond. What if the user is in process of a 999 call that someone's life is dependant on. Do they just end that call to Dela with a warning then get put back in a queue for 999 while the phone lines are jammed etc. It's total madness.
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