New Alert system to work on cell phones but what if you get an alert at 3am???

[thumper18474]

Disagree, sending the signal all across Ontario for an incident in Thunder Bay is ridiculous. All they accomplished is to train people to ignore future alerts.

A).thunder bay is what?...an hour or 2 from Manitoba(was alert heard in Manitoba?...not sure)
B) a couple hours on a plane and youre in TO..(not sure how much of a headstart abductor had)
C) description of car ..albeit weak was for locals more than all of Ontario

Again bottom line...all ended well
So pay attention ...or ...dont..and hope no family member of yours has to go thru it...

 

[rhuarc29]

One of the uses of these emergency message is actually for Amber Alerts. I don't see a problem with this because how often are these issued?

Quite frequently judging by those broadcast on television.

I have my phone set to silent during sleeping hours, so it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[mandrill]

I put my phone on mute and still I got TWO fucking amber alerts in court yesterday!!! What the FUCK!!!!!

Some woman kidnaps a child in St Catherines and I get alerted twice while presenting a client's case to a judge in Brampton?! WTF is that??!!!!

 

[Kirby2006]

Alerts? What alerts? Am I late to the party or what?

 

[silk123]

Disagree, sending the signal all across Ontario for an incident in Thunder Bay is ridiculous. All they accomplished is to train people to ignore future alerts.

Agreed, how could a kid getting taken in Thunder Bay get across the province so quickly, why does my phone need to alarm in Toronto right away. They need to fix this system or people will ignore it just like car alarms going off.

 

[TeeJay]

Does everyone with LTE in Ontario get the alert? Including phones in Ontario with non-Ontario phone numbers? What about Ontario phones that aren’t in Ontario?

Its based on phone number

People in Ottawa already complaining that they use Gatineau PQ numbers as local phone numbers under NCR and no test or alerts

 

[TeeJay]

This Amber Alert was real: https://twitter.com/AMBERAlertONT?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

lol no it actually wasn't
They could not have proved my point better

It was a false Amber Alert and it was cancelled when they realized the kid was sitting in a Tim Hortons
Mother is still being searched for anyways it is nothing more than a domestic dispute not a real kidnapping

 

[TeeJay]

I’m at home, And on my wifi and I got the 2 alerts and the cancellation today.
Just like I still get phone calls through cellular when I’m on wifi. You don’t have to have a data plan to use cellular.

Depends on your service
Volte or Vowifi require a data connection to place a voice call as the names imply

Rogers is the only old school GSM provider left in town and they are shutting that network down in 2020

 

[Phil C. McNasty]

I put my phone on mute and still I got TWO fucking amber alerts in court yesterday!!! What the FUCK!!!!!

Some woman kidnaps a child in St Catherines and I get alerted twice while presenting a client's case to a judge in Brampton?! WTF is that??!!!!

I was in a Loblaws when mine went off, it was quite the spectacle when everyone's phone around me went off at the same time. Almost like a concert....LOL

 

[managee]

My non-Ontario cell (with a Western Canada area code) received the latest alert (I was in Toronto at the time).

Thanks.

I asked around and the alert didn’t go to people with Ontario numbers who were outside of Ontario.

The OPP messaging on this is a bit maddening.

From CBC “OPP spokesperson Sgt. Carolle Dionne confirmed that the police form sent to the alert system has a checkbox to specify whether or not the incident warrants a “provincial alert.” “People need to remember that it’s a quick alert that may potentially save a child’s life,” Dionne said. The OPP received numerous complaints from people about the alert causing disruptions.

A quick alert to a phone 20-hours away from where the incident is taking/has taken place can’t possibly “save a child’s life.”

I’m all about ‘saving a child’s life’ - but don’t check the wrong checkbox, then try to high road me for complaining about the completely useless disruption that you won’t admit was a mistake.

 

[Kadie Lux]

I've gotten these warnings on my phone like all day yesterday and while in appointments. Had to turn my phone right off.

Its crazy how they can now send amber alert warnings to our personal cell phone. Im shocked. Just jaw dropping really.

 

[Kadie Lux]

Quite frequently judging by those broadcast on television.

I have my phone set to silent during sleeping hours, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Yup guess Im going to have to have my phone on silent now too lol because that alarm is a rattling loud noise!

Very loud and obnoxious. I was shocked to see those messages to my phone. Then again, nothin surprises me anymore.

 

[renuck]

I'd like to know how often Amber Alerts result in tips or help in locating or resolving the Alert.

Actually decent results in the US :

924 children rescued specifically because of AMBER Alert
53 children have been rescued because of Wireless Emergency Alerts!

https://www.amberalert.gov/statistics.htm

I lived in the southern U.S. and it was a pretty good system. The alerts were effective and not so obnoxious. Awesome way to get the word out quickly and get a lot of eyes looking for a particular type of car or license plate or whatever. Absolutely sometimes the alerts were at inconvenient times but what are you really doing that's more important than finding an abducted child ASAP, even if it is 3AM.

The one we just got, well I think they have some kinks to work out. Could have been the operators first time sending out an alert and isn't 100% familiar with the system yet or maybe there are some software wrinkles to iron out. Either way I think it's great we are getting this service here.... assuming they will streamline it.

 

[newtohobby54]

the alerts are nothing new to me I used to live in America we got them all the time for weather warnings they would not send one out at 3 a.m. without a reason

 

[GameBoy27]

lol no it actually wasn't
They could not have proved my point better

It was a false Amber Alert and it was cancelled when they realized the kid was sitting in a Tim Hortons
Mother is still being searched for anyways it is nothing more than a domestic dispute not a real kidnapping

According to you...

According to the Police, the woman was arrested and is charged with abduction in contravention of a court order, break and enter, and assault.

https://www.cp24.com/news/thunder-bay-woman-47-charged-after-amber-alert-issued-for-boy-8-1.3930908

Yeah, must be teething problems using the new system.


Note: I have an iPhone which I sometimes put into "do not disturb" mode when I want to get a couple hours sleep. These alerts will bypass the "Do no disturb" mode, at least with an iPhone. I have first-hand experience with this, being woken up at 3:00 am on vacation in Hawaii (flash flood alert).

I quickly flipped the ring/silent switch on the side of my iPhone to the "On" position and it silenced the audible alert. I'm not sure if I would've received the alert had I set it to "On" prior to the broadcast.

 

[Phil C. McNasty]

If you have an Android phone, you have some control over this. At least I do on Orea - don't know about earlier versions.

Go to Settings/Notifications/Advanced/Emergency Alerts

You can turn alerts on/off by category, i.e. Amber, Severe Weather, etc, as well as muting the spoken alerts.

I own a Samsung S7 and that option 'Emergency Alerts' is nowhere to be found on my phone

 

[renuck]

I've done a little reading on this and apparently we Canadians shouldn't be allowed to opt out of getting the alerts. So it seems this option being available in iOS is a remnant and "shouldn't" be there and might be required to be removed in a future update. I can't remember what ROM I have on my S7 Edge right now but I think it's a Rogers version of 7.0 and the option isn't there - which it shouldn't be for a Canadian specific ROM. I've been thinking on trying a AOSP 8.0 ROM lately so that might have the option available since it isn't country specific.

[edit]I just looked up the build number and I'm running a stock Samsung Canadian specific ROM HERE (version G935W8VLU2BQH1) so that might explain it. Anyone running a different ROM that has this feature?[/edit]

 

[TeeJay]

Another false Amber Alert late night tonight
Some stupid domestic dispute between separated parents
You can't abduct your own kid
Stupid system needs to be spammed

 

[WarGames]

Fucking tripped me right out!

 

[WarGames]

Another false Amber Alert late night tonight
Some stupid domestic dispute between separated parents
You can't abduct your own kid
Stupid system needs to be spammed

Yes - you can abduct your own child. The mother most likely has full custody, the father visitation rights and court ordered to have the child back in the mothers possession at a stipulated time, in this case, it was 6pm. Which is also why you can't take your child out of the country without the other parents signature if you have shared custody.

Regardless, I don't appreciate being scared shitless at midnight on my cell phone either!