Emergency warning on Sunday

It’s a strange reaction to get so stressed about this planned test- like others upthread I am curious as to what it will sound like, who knows, it may be important one day. I remember the flood warnings in London in the early 70’s when those living in basement flats had every reason to be grateful for advance warning.
But sheep like fear behaviour ? Really?
What a fuss about nothing.

My thoughts exactly Riverwalk
I don’t understand what everyone is getting their knickers in a twist for or getting belligerent over 10 seconds of your life 😂seems hilarious to me all this energy used in jumping up and down to say ‘no I won’t do as I m told’

If it’s an anti ‘anything’ reason “I m not doing it because I ve been told to why should I ? “ then get out on the streets and put your anti selves to shout about this blxxdy awful government

Doesn't bother me - I'll leave my phone on to hear what it sounds like.

It could be useful one day.

I am not having that impositioned alarm. Just another thing to enforce sheep-like fear behaviour in the general population.

mistymitts

I heard on the radio that you won’t be able to use your phone until you have made some sort of acknowledgment of the alarm. I also heard that you cannot switch to choose not to receive the alarm. Don’t know what is true or not.

A message will come up accompanying the alarm which you just tap OK and it will clear.
You can make an adjustment in your phones settings to disable it or put your phone on airplane mode then it won’t sound

I heard on the radio that you won’t be able to use your phone until you have made some sort of acknowledgment of the alarm. I also heard that you cannot switch to choose not to receive the alarm. Don’t know what is true or not.

Yes, that's one of many good reasons to have these alerts. They could save lives.

What if there's a gunman on the loose randomly shooting people, an alert could warn you to stay indoors or take cover.

From FULL FACT. I found this helpful. Hope others may too

Ahead of the government testing out an emergency alert on every phone connected to 4G or 5G in the UK this weekend at 3pm on Sunday 23 April, we have seen bad information about the emergency alert shared thousands of times online.

Misinformation about this alert may lead to unnecessary alarm, and in some instances, may even cause people to opt out of future alerts (as many online have claimed they already have) based on incorrect information.

The facts:

The emergency alert will not access your personal data. When an alert is triggered, all cell towers in the area concerned will broadcast the alert to connected devices. The government doesn’t need to know your location or phone number to do this. The Cabinet Office confirmed to Full Fact that no personal data is collected by the alert.

The alert will not be a text message you need to reply to, but will be a notification that will need to be acknowledged before you can keep using your phone as normal. It will include a website link containing further information.

Emergency Alerts won’t match personal data with information collected during the pandemic. Claims on social media suggesting that the emergency alert system will allow personal data to be collected, and that this will be matched with data collected when people signed into venues during the Covid-19 pandemic, are not true.

The government website describes the alert as “one-way” and confirms that the alert does not require the government to know any individual phone numbers. Since no data is collected by the Emergency Alert system, it isn’t possible for it to be matched with personal data collected during the pandemic.

The emergency alert test will not ‘breach GDPR’. When an alert is triggered, mobile phone masts broadcast it to every compatible phone and tablet within range. The government won’t be using your personal data, like your mobile phone number, to do this.

The alert is not an “activation signal” to activate the “pathogen in the shot”. We’ve seen claims on social media that the emergency alert test is an “activation signal” to activate the “pathogen in the shot”. This appears to be a reference to the Covid-19 vaccines. There’s no way a signal from a cell tower could “activate” a pathogen or vaccine materials including the Covid-19 vaccine.

Dr Al Edwards, associate professor in biomedical technology at the University of Reading, told Full Fact: “There is no mechanism known to physics or biology that could connect radio signals set by mobile phone data systems, to the biological or chemical materials found in vaccines.”
Stop the spread of bad information
Help us challenge misleading claims this weekend—share and give more people access good information.

I won't be turning mine off just yet but in reality I'm not sure I want to know in advance if Putin decides to drown us all.

Ilovecheese

Some people in situations of domestic violence keep a secret phone for emergencies. They need to turn off this warning so that their abuser does not hear it and discover the hidden phone.

Some people have secret lovers too!😁

Does anyone else think it’s a coincidence that Russian ships have been spotted spying on underwater power and communication cables, and now we’re having an alarm test? I think that gives more cause for concern than a nuclear attack.

I am on the internet for most of the day, I also have the tv news on in the background - if there was an emergency I would know about it anyway. Mine has been switched off already, not interested in my phone screeching at me, and you just know there are going to be false alarms that will terrify people. For iPhones go to Settings, Notifications and then scroll all the way to the bottom and you will see two alert settings that you can either switch off or leave on.

Marjgran

So many posts seem to be from folk who seem to be so very very clever they really ought to be running civil defence in the UK. If you think you’ll never need the alarm, good on you, but let those who may want a warning get one.

I don't think I'm clever. In fact I know I'm not

However I am free to say that in my opinion, they are pointless.

But if they gladden the hearts of some I'm happy for them to have their alert

I'm undecided. I think it's more likely to be because of the supposed nuclear threat from Russia, although I do think a lot of that is fear-mongering. Put it this way, if Russia send nukes there'd be several other countries that would send theirs over to Russia - everybody loses, therefore pointless.
On a forum I was on, several people complained that they'd had an EAS at 2.00am, that was in Florida and their Govt apologised next day. Also in the UK, there is concern that people living in an abusive household may have a secret phone and a sudden alarm could have serious consequences.
On the funny side, I had to use the public loos in town last week and, unbeknown to me, they were about to do a security alarm test at the time. I almost jumped out of my skin. I thought I might be found dead from a heart attack, sat on the loo.

At the risk of repeating myself...

If people want to take part in this and have your prior warning, crack on, nothing to do with me if you do or you don't.

But, I don't want it so I'm not having it.

Why does that make you angry?

So many posts seem to be from folk who seem to be so very very clever they really ought to be running civil defence in the UK. If you think you’ll never need the alarm, good on you, but let those who may want a warning get one.

I acquired both a fire blanket and an extinguisher after a friend had a terrifying kitchen fire that exploded into an inferno almost instantly. A lot of us got ourselves some fire safety equipment after that. Thankfully my friend managed to get her pets away from the fire but her house was badly damaged.

My extinguisher went out of date so I don’t have it now but I’ve kept the fire blanket.

GrannyGravy13

Galaxy

Do people have fire extinguishers in their home? I dont know anyone who does. Am I in some sort of extreme risk taking group.

I have a fire blanket (small) and a small fire extinguisher in my kitchen cupboard.

This came about due teenagers/twenty something AC coming in at silly o’clock and cooking/toasting snacks

I bad both, for the same reason.
Now I have them because I don't trust myself.

Galaxy

Do people have fire extinguishers in their home? I dont know anyone who does. Am I in some sort of extreme risk taking group.

I have a fire blanket (small) and a small fire extinguisher in my kitchen cupboard.

This came about due teenagers/twenty something AC coming in at silly o’clock and cooking/toasting snacks

Maremia

So, they send us a warning signal about imminent danger. (I know this is just a practice) Then what? Is there a follow up of advice? How does panicking the populace help in an emergency? Surprised that we have not heard more about what we do next.

When/if the warning is used in an actual threat situation it will have details of what you should do and where to go.

So, they send us a warning signal about imminent danger. (I know this is just a practice) Then what? Is there a follow up of advice? How does panicking the populace help in an emergency? Surprised that we have not heard more about what we do next.

If madman Putin decides to press the nuclear button, I'll be pleased to get the alarm - I'll at least have a few minutes to gather my household together and text a final goodbye to my nearest and dearest

P.S. I don't have a fire extinguisher either. Or a fire blanket. Though I think I should have as I nearly burnt the kitchen down when I left the hob on with a wooden spatula over it, and started a fire on the mantelpiece years ago with a candle and Christmas decorations.

I believe the point of the emergency warning is that it will go out to all phones within contact of specified masts. If, for instance, there was a major fire in the middle of Bristol and the emergency services needed to close roads, clear the area and stop people coming there they could send out an alert to everyone within reach of the local masts to keep people away. So no one in London or Dundee is going to get the alert. I don't know how it all got involved with a future war. The alert system was planned some years ago, even tested in some areas, but got put on the back burner for some reason - maybe there were issues with it, or Covid got in the way.