It’s literally just a priority alert. The AFP aren’t taking control of your phone, and there is no evidence you’re going to be flooded with alerts either.
There’s absolutely a “slippery slope” argument to be made here. Would you also allow a “feature” which allows rescuers to see your location? Generally I despise slippery slope arguments but in the context of government surveillance steady incremental encroachment is an established strategy. Every step should be resisted.
I’ve had f**kwits in my hiking group REFUSE to listen
These people won’t be deterred by an alert on their phone.
My response to your general argument is simply that people have been avoiding disasters without these alerts since the dawn of time. I don’t really see the harm in allowing users to disable them.
000 can already see your location, and has been for ages (if you click ok). But this is just a cell broadcast, not a two way feature that can magically read where you are…
They haven’t always been avoiding disasters. In practice, we’ve been lucky that we’ve dodged a lot of them. But, if you speak to the 414 people injured in the black Saturday bushfires, they will tell you a warning would be nice. In fact, early warning systems were something identified explicitly during the royal commission. And, at Monash Uni during the attempted mass shooting, I would have been grateful to see on my phone that there was a active shooting in the uni… Not because someone told me they heard there is a “sniper”
There is no slippery slope, because if it does get abused with spam, it can be turned off later. It’s not a mandatory feature, and never will be. There’s no reason to believe it would be compulsory either
This isn’t designed to be used because there is a housefire 500m away. It’s designed to be used for bigger things, like mass shootings, tsunami, bushfire, etc (and, I’d imagine it is just done as a cell broadcast). If they want to track you, they can simply check that cell tower you’re on (they already know who your sim is registered to). But, they don’t know your exact location
My point regarding mountaineering, is that I’ve been in a few “oh shit” moments, and I know people who have been rescued. This isn’t for that. However, my experience is that the people who scream the loudest about how independent they are and who ignore safety are always the same ones who demand everyone bends over when it backfires… I’ve seen it at EBC, on various walks in Australia, and in other circumstances.
There’s absolutely a “slippery slope” argument to be made here. Would you also allow a “feature” which allows rescuers to see your location? Generally I despise slippery slope arguments but in the context of government surveillance steady incremental encroachment is an established strategy. Every step should be resisted.
These people won’t be deterred by an alert on their phone.
My response to your general argument is simply that people have been avoiding disasters without these alerts since the dawn of time. I don’t really see the harm in allowing users to disable them.
000 can already see your location, and has been for ages (if you click ok). But this is just a cell broadcast, not a two way feature that can magically read where you are…
They haven’t always been avoiding disasters. In practice, we’ve been lucky that we’ve dodged a lot of them. But, if you speak to the 414 people injured in the black Saturday bushfires, they will tell you a warning would be nice. In fact, early warning systems were something identified explicitly during the royal commission. And, at Monash Uni during the attempted mass shooting, I would have been grateful to see on my phone that there was a active shooting in the uni… Not because someone told me they heard there is a “sniper”
There is no slippery slope, because if it does get abused with spam, it can be turned off later. It’s not a mandatory feature, and never will be. There’s no reason to believe it would be compulsory either
This isn’t designed to be used because there is a housefire 500m away. It’s designed to be used for bigger things, like mass shootings, tsunami, bushfire, etc (and, I’d imagine it is just done as a cell broadcast). If they want to track you, they can simply check that cell tower you’re on (they already know who your sim is registered to). But, they don’t know your exact location
My point regarding mountaineering, is that I’ve been in a few “oh shit” moments, and I know people who have been rescued. This isn’t for that. However, my experience is that the people who scream the loudest about how independent they are and who ignore safety are always the same ones who demand everyone bends over when it backfires… I’ve seen it at EBC, on various walks in Australia, and in other circumstances.
Reasoning is wasted on them, they don’t understand the tech and they don’t give a shit about wasting resources.