It can be blocked, FYI. Just... not as easily as it should be. On
Android, if you remove the CellBroadcastReceiver service, the phone no
longer listens for the alerts.
I rooted my phone specifically to be able to do this after the alerting
system rolled out in Canada. The test was bad enough, then within the
first week we had several alerts for a single event that happened
literally an entire day's drive away from me.
And thus, in the first week the system was alive, alarm fatigue set in,
the government confirmed that it cannot be trusted, and I revoked their
privilege to use my personal devices for stuff I don't want.
On 2019-03-08 7:51 p.m., Clayton Zekelman wrote:
Absolutely, we need public emergency alerting. What we don't need is
every alert to go out mandatory highest level sound the klaxon, can't
be blocked, even when it's an "all clear" cancelling a previous alert,
and is being sent in the middle of the night.
That's the system that has been foisted upon us here. I'm all for
emergency alerting, but please make sure it's a real emergency.
At least in the US version, they target the region affected, and code
it with the appropriate alert level instead of sending alerts to
people 1400 km away.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/05/14/first-emergency-alert-sets-off-phones-ontario-wide-following-thunder-bay-amber-alert.html
At 07:43 PM 08/03/2019, Sean Donelan wrote:
Canada made a lot of improvements with its alert implementation. It
got to see all the things the U.S. did wrong. Unfortuantely, Canada
also copied some wrong lessons from the the U.S. version.
South Korea probably has the most ludicrous emergency alerts in the
world.
While improvements are needed, the various alert systems have saved
people's lives.
On Fri, 8 Mar 2019, Clayton Zekelman wrote:
Just wait until your connected home speakers, smart smoke detector,
smart
refrigerator, smart tv, cell phone, IP streaming box, satellite
receiver,
cable box, home security panel and your Fitbit all go off warning
you of the
cancellation of an Amber alert at 1:30am, because the good folks at
AlertReady.Ca and Pelmorex think that everything needs to go out at
highest
precedence, because, well, think of the children!