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Apr 2023
11:31am, 24 Apr 2023
377 posts
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Pale Skinny Vegan
Night-owl, I wonder if I'll get a missed message alert next time I'm in a 4G area? Probably not.
Cerrertonia, most shops offer a 'Select local store or use current location' option on their website, which I believe is based on wifi. If Tesco can tell where I am, shouldn't the government be able to as well?
<Conspiracy theory>Any apparent failure of surveillance technology is deliberate disinformation to prevent the general public realising how advanced it really is and how closely 'they' are watching you.</Conspiracy theory>
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Apr 2023
11:49am, 24 Apr 2023
18,725 posts
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Cerrertonia
most shops offer a 'Select local store or use current location' option on their website, which I believe is based on wifi. If Tesco can tell where I am, shouldn't the government be able to as well?
There's no information going to the government at all in this case though. The alert is sent by the selected base station(s) to all phones currently connected to that station. There isn't a list of which phones it was sent to that gets relayed back to anybody.
The likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft have created systems that can infer your location from nearby wi-fi network names, but that information is only shared (eg to Tesco) when requested, and only with your permission. Your phone may know where it is via the WiFi network but that doesn't mean that anyone else does.
The "government" (police, intelligence services) certainly can and do use such data to tie a specific phone to a specific time and place. But that's a far cry from being able to send an emergency message to all phones in a specific location, in real time.
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Apr 2023
2:40pm, 24 Apr 2023
378 posts
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Pale Skinny Vegan
but that information is only shared (eg to Tesco) when requested, and only with your permission
Thanks, yes, I always have to click the "Allow x to know your location" button.
I understand that mobile phone base stations have to constantly update the list of which phones are connected as people move from near one mast to another. I would imagine this list is not made available to any human under normal circumstances for privacy reasons.
I can see how an official alert would need to go to every phone on every base station's list, I just would have expected it to go to every phone on every wifi network as well.
Maybe that's not technically possible, in which case it seems a bit of a flaw in the system.
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Apr 2023
2:48pm, 24 Apr 2023
379 posts
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Pale Skinny Vegan
On a possibly unrelated theme, I noticed when I got fibre broadband that my physical location on the internet became a lot more accurate. Various websites would home in on my house instead of just putting me somewhere near Birmingham, presumably where the telephone exchange is.
I've noticed lately that the accuracy has dropped off a bit.
Google earth and OS Maps put me in a village about 9 miles away. Bing maps puts me in a town about 5 miles away.
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Apr 2023
3:12pm, 24 Apr 2023
3,040 posts
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cackleberry
Sooooooooo... Given how many people here didn't even receive the alert, I take it that the test was unsuccessful. We are a small sub-section of the population.
Is there anywhere to report that the alert was not received?
(My phone had the alert disabled, OH phone worked fine but he didn't hear it!)
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Apr 2023
3:16pm, 24 Apr 2023
11,042 posts
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Fragile Do Not Bend
I was somewhere on the Isle of Dogs, running. Lots of phones around me went of but it wasn’t as alarming as I was expecting.
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Apr 2023
3:20pm, 24 Apr 2023
30,380 posts
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Nicholls595
I was stood at the side of a rugby pitch in Burton under Needwood. I didn't get the alert. Mrs Nico, stood 3 feet away, with an identical phone, on an identical tarriff with 3 mobile, got it early. I'd say there were 20 - 30 people near us, about 5 didn't get it.
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Apr 2023
3:24pm, 24 Apr 2023
102,694 posts
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Hanneke
Cackle, I wonder this too!
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Apr 2023
3:26pm, 24 Apr 2023
46,451 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
Nice cafe restaurant having late lunch (or v late brunch, as it was an all day breakfast and missus and I hadn't had breakfast!)
Two others went off at 14.59, then some at 15.00, ours (Vodafone) at 15.01. We thought we were being left out! Did some go off twice?!  G
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Apr 2023
3:32pm, 24 Apr 2023
1,061 posts
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Shades
I was in Ireland running a marathon. Wasn't sure if my phone would be within range so left phone in flight mode.
Later on I had to restart my phone and then I got the emergency test, was quite loud.
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