• Faresh@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      I think in the US there are alerts (called amber alerts) for when people go missing in the hopes of increasing the chance of finding the person by raising awareness.

        • Manalith@midwest.social
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          8 months ago

          So many colors (if clear is considered a color) and then “endangered missing persons.” I know EMP isn’t a color, and I’d be a lot more concerned if I got an EMP alert, but surely they could’ve come up with something for that one.

      • ShunkW@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It’s specifically for missing children afaik. And it may only be used when it’s an abduction, not just a missing child, but don’t quote me on that. That’s just the ones I’ve seen.

          • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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            8 months ago

            Depending on where you are, they might not use the different alert levels properly. In my area the local government uses the “the nukes have launched” alert level for everything, from amber alerts to tornado and ice storm warnings.

            • TommySalami@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              It annoying, but also leads to some wonderful moments. I was at small event event yesterday, when a weather alert started rolling out. I can only describe it as glorious sitting at the back listening to a sea of angry alarms, and watching people frantically try to silence their phones. Idk if that outweigh the alarm fatigue it gives people, but it was a fun moment for me.

          • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            It’s a great system but I mean…not exactly the most helpful sometimes.

            THERE IS A BROWN CAR WITH A BLONDE GIRL IN IT SOMEWHERE WITHIN 100 MILES OF YOU! 11!1

            Thanks Amber. I’ll get right on that.

        • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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          8 months ago

          There is an emergency function in all mobile phones that overrides everything else and blasts a loud sound and takes over the whole screen. It is there for emergencies, like when the people in Hawaii got told that the apocalypse has come by accident. In the NL you get one per month when they check the air raid alert sirens. The US uses them for alerts for missing children.

          Your phone would also do it if you are in the area, no matter where you bought it or your carrier.

          • JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Ok, but how do you disable it? Is it an Android setting, something I can do over adb, do I have to root the device, install a custom ROM, or disable part of the hardware?

            • h0usewaifu@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              It’s an Android setting. Assuming you’re in the US, you can disable all warning channels (including Amber alerts) except the National one, which I believe has to be on by law, but is only supposed to be used in apocalypse level emergencies. The Hawaii thing was triggered by accident, iirc.

              On my S24, it’s in Settings > Safety and Emergency > Wireless Emergency Alerts.

              I don’t know if it’s even possible to disable the National warnings, but you’d likely have to use adb or root your phone to do it.

              • JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                Thanks, but I’m in the UK, where only the national ones are ever used. I don’t want to disable it, because I think it’s useful, but I want control over my device, so I want to be making the choice to keep it enabled, if you know what I mean.

              • Soggy@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                Oh neat, my phone has a function to detect tracking devices.

                We live in hell.

            • skulblaka@startrek.website
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              8 months ago

              It’s not really a backdoor. It’s an Emergency Broadcast System. Nobody can access your phone through it, they just blast data out to everyone in a preconfigured way that your phone knows to receive and relay to you.

              It’s not really any different than receiving a text message except that the text message comes with its own dedicated sound so that you know an emergency is happening.

            • ShunkW@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              It’s not a backdoor. It’s a broadcast message system, like the emergency alert system used on television.