We have them here. They were initially meant to be primarily for Tsunami warnings, but unfortunately the government used them to announce Covid lockdowns and they lost all credibility.
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Weāve has this for years in Japan and has been improved upon constantly. Easy to dismiss. Very useful when needed. But, as usual the 'data privacy ā people give it the cold shoulder. Canāt sell a mobile phone here without the software embedded. You CAN opt out, sure. Thatās on you then.
This is a client side feature provided on Apple and Android phones. Not a feedback loop to the government for tracking or any other reason. Forcing you to clear the message ensures that the alert is actually read by the recipient - especially important if there is a local threat to life. This is a safety feature built into the phones software. No ones phone is getting taken over by the Illuminati. 
Just to add, (for those that are concerned about tracking), simply having your device connected to the mobile network is sufficient for a bad actor to track you.
The issue seems to be one of trust, and imo we are dealing with one of the least trustworthy organisations ever - governments. I must be sailing pretty close to a breach of forum rules so Iāll leave it at that.
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It sure wasā¦ damn I miss those times; at least the good ones 
Thanks. Iāve disabled both.
Weāll see what happens.
Me too. Iād like to have a choice about receiving alerts from HMG, or anyone else for that matter.
Schools/College campuses and other companies have shelter in place alerts if a shooting is reported/in progress. Phone messages, emailsā¦
You can switch it off if you want. Itās worth noting that itās a general broadcast from a mast in a local area rather than phone specific.
Iām looking forward to when one goes off in the middle of a classical music concert. The glares at those who have switched off their phones will be entertaining as the concert continues and the world around ends. 
On iPhone are these disabled in Notifications by turning off Severe and Extreme alerts which I did some time ago? Canāt recall why but probably Covid related.
Same here - no mobile signal and middle of nowhere. Iād have to rely on the crows falling from the sky in a case of emergency. At least if the crap hits the fan we will be the last targets on the list, then just die slowly from the fallout instead lol :P.
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Iām not the biggest fan of governments in practice, but I canāt help thinking:
- Government has capability to alert citizens about a safety issue in such a way as could easily save lives but doesnāt do so. Many people complain that the government doesnāt do enough, doesnāt care about its people etc.
- Government has capability to alert citizens about a safety issue in such a way as could easily save lives and does so. Many people complain of infringement of freedom and snooping.
I too struggle to see how any government could effectively snoop on me by sending out such warnings. Anyone whoās ever tried to work with a government IT system knows how hopeless they usually are.
Mark
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Common sense has finally arrived in this threadš
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Is common sense in the populist era a good thing or not?
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This seems to be the flaw with most conspiracy theories. It requires a huge amount of faith in the competence of large organisations.
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Who knows. Perhaps Tin Foil hat sales will rise and the easily mystified will be trying to burn down 5G masts again.
Even if the government cannot organise things properly, but many people have an app on their phones, it takes one smart bloke to leak data.
Reading this thread with some bemusementā¦if everyone is so concerned about security and access to an individualsā pattern of life and data exploitation, why on earth are we happy to interact freely on an open forum like this?
It only takes one or two snippets of info from this and other platforms for a nefarious actor to start to build a profile over time - Iāve see it happen.
How many of you use this alongside Meta based apps???
Joe Public are generally the first to moan about not being told about poor weather when they then freeze overnight in their cars; despite met office warningsā¦
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This forum is much better than say google.com. Anything I search for or read here does not automatically translate in being spammed with adās to give just one example.
Iāve no meta based apps for various reasons. Indeed no whatsapp et cetera.
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