The real problem is that all alerts are sent at the highest priority ‘presidential alert’ or ‘disaster warning’. Missing persons / Amber alerts should obey volume settings and do-no-disturb, but we don’t appear to have the technology to do that.
There was an incident in Ontario where an elderly grandparent was missing for 12 hours – so they sent the alert to a 1200km radius… at 2am. Then again a few minutes later. Then again 30 minutes later. Then again at 3am, then again at 4am. The OPP woke up several million people, several times, for an entire night. The result? A police officer saw them on Lakeshore Blvd. in Toronto, less than 60km from their home. There was zero benefit to waking up every household with a cell phone across most of the province – and I’m willing to bet there was a HUGE increase in traffic accidents the next day (because losing just ONE hour of sleep to daylight savings time has this effect).
You’re right to be mad, but you’re fixing it the wrong way.
I’ve already written an email to the CRTC about this. Should I also write to my provincial MP?
What’s the “correct” way to decide if I want my phone to randomly blast an end-of-the-world alarm or not?
And for anybody finding this, uninstalling the cellbroadcastreceiver package via adb finally worked for me. If successful, the emergency alerts menu on your phone should crash, and no more end-of-the-world alarms.
One point though, many people think that the reason for an increase in morning accidents after the clock jumps back is due to people the night before having an extra hour to drink ( alcohol ).
The real problem is that all alerts are sent at the highest priority ‘presidential alert’ or ‘disaster warning’. Missing persons / Amber alerts should obey volume settings and do-no-disturb, but we don’t appear to have the technology to do that.
There was an incident in Ontario where an elderly grandparent was missing for 12 hours – so they sent the alert to a 1200km radius… at 2am. Then again a few minutes later. Then again 30 minutes later. Then again at 3am, then again at 4am. The OPP woke up several million people, several times, for an entire night. The result? A police officer saw them on Lakeshore Blvd. in Toronto, less than 60km from their home. There was zero benefit to waking up every household with a cell phone across most of the province – and I’m willing to bet there was a HUGE increase in traffic accidents the next day (because losing just ONE hour of sleep to daylight savings time has this effect).
You’re right to be mad, but you’re fixing it the wrong way.
How should I be fixing it?
I’ve already written an email to the CRTC about this. Should I also write to my provincial MP?
What’s the “correct” way to decide if I want my phone to randomly blast an end-of-the-world alarm or not?
And for anybody finding this, uninstalling the cellbroadcastreceiver package via adb finally worked for me. If successful, the emergency alerts menu on your phone should crash, and no more end-of-the-world alarms.
CRTC, your Provincial and Federal MPs, as well as Industry Canada, since they regulate Telcos.
I agree with most of what you are saying though.
One point though, many people think that the reason for an increase in morning accidents after the clock jumps back is due to people the night before having an extra hour to drink ( alcohol ).