This includes most phones, and some smart watches and tablets.

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[–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    I think we might be arguing about different things - youre espousing the merits of an alert system, myself and others are concerned that its mandatory and not able to be disabled.

    The slippery slope i mentioned is not because im concerned about spam. If we embrace the government's ability to legislate that devices must perform specific functions, then that sets the foundation for all sorts of future encroachments.

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