I'm sorry about your sister @philippasmith2, wanted to say that when I saw your post but I've arrived a bit late. I hope it was peaceful.
I think I'll be OK when the alarm goes, my mobile is French. It's like a mini computer, a mystery at first but I've grown to love it. I can look up plants at the garden centres, find somewhere nice to eat or have a coffee if we are in a strange town, keep in touch with my family and send photos of our gardens and my grandchildren on WhatsApp, gives walking directions to somewhere when we're lost, see what's on TV, it's a mini marvel.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Interesting that the government can access everybody's smart phone.
Interesting is not a word I would use. More like "scary".
I'm a very private person where my contact information is concerned. If I want someone to have it, then I'll give it to them. I'm not on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Was your name, address and phone number in the phone book back in the day when we all had one of those?
Are you on the open version of the Electoral Roll?
I am honestly shocked that this thing is technically possible. Loud alarm even on a phone on silent and the prevention of any use of the phone (not just cutting it off signal). That's hacking. Do they have a backdoor in every phone sold in the UK? Or is there some security hole that allows sending some software (virus, basically) that does this? I will have to google this later when I have time.
I am honestly shocked that this thing is technically possible. Loud alarm even on a phone on silent and the prevention of any use of the phone (not just cutting it off signal). That's hacking. Do they have a backdoor in every phone sold in the UK? Or is there some security hole that allows sending some software (virus, basically) that does this? I will have to google this later when I have time.
nope. You have a setting on your phone for what happens when you get all sorts of different alerts. Mine makes different noises for texts, emails, whatsapps (all chosen by me). I have a do not disturb set so none of them go off at night. I have different volume settings for when it rings or when I'm listening to music on it. If I set the alarm to wake up in the morning, it will sound even if the phone's on silent, as will the timer if I'm timing my bread in the oven. I could tell it not to. In there somewhere will be a setting for what it does when there's an emergency message and I can, I'm sure, turn it down or off if I bother to look for it. It's all controlled by me for my phone. WE has already explained that the message is not sent to you, just broadcast to every suitable device in range.
As Dove has already said, they have been able to do something like it for ages - when we had the storms last year, we got messages about power outages just because we were in the vicinity of one of the masts they used to send the first alert. I got the follow ups rather than OH because I replied on the website with my number. It's really not that clever.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
It's a massive phishing exercise. They are sending out the alert to every phone in range of every tower. That is all they need to do. There is no need to stop your phone working until you respond to the alert. As soon as you click on that link you are handing over access to your phone.
Am I being naive? I see nothing about this initiative that worries me in the slightest. I cannot imagine it will be used in my part of the country more than once a decade, even once a lifetime, but if it saves lives from high winds, extreme tides, exceptional flooding then it does nothing but good.
Paranoia abounds … we’re heading back to medieval times when anything new was regarded with suspicion and women were burned at the stake for having a wart … or for knowing how to cure it … 🙄
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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I think I'll be OK when the alarm goes, my mobile is French. It's like a mini computer, a mystery at first but I've grown to love it. I can look up plants at the garden centres, find somewhere nice to eat or have a coffee if we are in a strange town, keep in touch with my family and send photos of our gardens and my grandchildren on WhatsApp, gives walking directions to somewhere when we're lost, see what's on TV, it's a mini marvel.
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
As Dove has already said, they have been able to do something like it for ages - when we had the storms last year, we got messages about power outages just because we were in the vicinity of one of the masts they used to send the first alert. I got the follow ups rather than OH because I replied on the website with my number. It's really not that clever.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
There is no need to stop your phone working until you respond to the alert. As soon as you click on that link you are handing over access to your phone.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.