Ring... Ring... Big Brother Here

[Farbin Kaiber]

Well, It was only a matter of time til DHS/FEMA got acces to those lil ringing thingies in all our pockets.

"The system will be comparable to campus security systems with early warning text message services that are becoming more common in American colleges. Alerts will be broadcast along a single pathway to all users in affected areas. The messages will concern presidential national emergency alerts (could be handled by DHS/FEMA), imminent threat alerts (which include weather emergency alerts that could come from NOAA), and child abduction emergencies/AMBER alerts."

http://www.betanews.com/article/Development_begins_on_US_emergency_text_message_system/1207845713

How do you guys feel about it?

[JasonC]

I don't even own a cell phone!

[TwoJ's]

I'm not sure why anyone would see this as not good. It's just a warning/alert system, and that's all. From my understanding of that article, no government agency is given access to your phone, they simply give a message to wireless carriers whom will relay it to all of their customers via SMS.

No big deal. It's actually a good idea.

[Jparkr]

I'm not sure why anyone would see this as not good. It's just a warning/alert system, and that's all. From my understanding of that article, no government agency is given access to your phone, they simply give a message to wireless carriers whom will relay it to all of their customers via SMS.

No big deal. It's actually a good idea.

x2 earth to you... its not like there's little aliens in outer space reading your Texts... Hello, hello.

[blunttech]

I don't even own a cell phone!

i want to be able to say this. im seriously sick of my cell phone

[Il Duce]

do not want.

[e30e]

There's the obvious pros and cons to this. You gotta remember that it probably wasn't the government who initiated this but the stupid idiots who's lives revolve around there phone and freaked out when they showed up to a crime scene or drill and there phone didn't warn them.

Personally I hate big brother but I get a text message from school telling me half of campus is shut down for a drill and take alternative route to get to class is nice.

[atomic]

Doesn't bother me honestly. I would rather here of an alert in my area through these means than finding out several hours later. Since I live within 250 miles of something like 6 nuclear plants that now have daily air national guard patrols since 9/11.

[Massive Lee]

Hasn't Big Brother already invaded our privacies thru the monitoring of emails and telephone? They have sophisticated voice recognition systems that will trigger a red light if it hears "Let's", "Blow" and "the Whitehouse" in the same sentence? Or was it Yahoo that gave the right to CIA to "filter" all emails looking for certain keywords?

So, I guess that a cell phone receiving weather alarms or Amber signals is not that bad, since we have already accepted the worst.

[TwoJ's]

There's the obvious pros and cons to this. You gotta remember that it probably wasn't the government who initiated this but the stupid idiots who's lives revolve around there phone and freaked out when they showed up to a crime scene or drill and there phone didn't warn them.

Personally I hate big brother but I get a text message from school telling me half of campus is shut down for a drill and take alternative route to get to class is nice.

Yes, there are "pros" to this, but what are the "cons"?

There is nothing bad about this! This is no different than when I receive a text from AT&T telling me when my bill is due. They're just giving me a heads up.

Once again for the people who didn't actually read the article: The government is not doing anything but telling wireless carriers a message. The carrier is the one who texts you.

[Bimmerista]

I heard you can opt out of it if you like

[Turf1600]

Will my aluminum hat stop it?

[Jon325i]

Will my aluminum hat stop it?

Only if its made from genuine Reynolds aluminum foil. Store brand foil doesn't work.

Jon

[Ral]

I really don't see why this would be bad. No one shit themselves over the Emergency Broadcasting Service that used to interrupt TV and Radio broadcasts back in the day with that annoying beeeeeeeeeep. This isn't any different.