Worry Over VZW, Sprint Phones' 911 Alarm

[TheBORG] writes "An Austin woman who dialed 911 recently discovered what she said could be a fatal flaw in some new cell phones. She called for help when she arrived at some vacant property she owns in east Austin and found her security chain gone. She grabbed her new Verizon Wireless Casio G'zOne phone, which to her horror made an audible alarm when she called 911. Fearing vandals were still on the property, she hung up and hid, then put her hand over the earpiece and dialed again to muffle the sounds. A Verizon Wireless spokesperson says it's mandatory according to Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act. The FCC says Section 255 of the Telecommunications Code requires that phones let a caller know a 911 call is underway, but does not require an audible alarm. This thread on Howardforums.com mentions that the alarm is present on new Sprint phones too."

Well, duh.

[NeuralAbyss]

There's her problem. She's using Verizon.

Seriously.. are there /any/ mobile telcos in the US that don't suck in one way or another? I hated dealing with them for a month as a tourist, let alone for any longer period.

Re:Well, duh.

[moosesocks]

Well, yes. Verizon is generally crap.

However, in this case, their incompetence is borderline criminal. They need to push out a mandatory firmware update that removes this behavior immediately, or issue a recall. This comes to mind as being *extremely* dangerous.

Nice way to let the perps know where you are!

[tomhudson]

" requires that phones let a caller know a 911 call is underway, but does not require an audible alarm."

So now don't bother trying to call 911 the next time there's a school massacre - you'll just be targetting yourself and earning bonus points for your Darwin Award. Fucktards strike again.

wrong way to eliminate accidental 911 calls

[LordKronos]

I can kind of see the point of this, with all the people who've accidentally dialed 911 while the phone was in their pocket/purse. However, I think this may be the wrong way to go about solving the problem. I don't have any evidence to back up my theory, but I suspect most accidental calls don't actually dial the full 911. I've seen several cell phones before where simply holding down the 9 key will dial 911. If that isn't an accident waiting to happen, I don't know what is. Eliminate that, and I wonder how many accidental calls will be left.

Re:911 Abuse

[eck011219]

Hm, a woman alone on vacant property with the suspicion that there are bad people there? Yeah, you're right, there's no potential for emergency there. Honestly, sometimes I wish Slashdot didn't allow AC posts. It would solve a lot of hot wind problems like this one.

I have had several police officers in several different municipalities (even Chicago, which is quite understaffed and full of very real crime) tell me when I call the non-emergency line to call 911. They say that they would much rather respond quickly to even what seems like a minor problem so it doesn't become a major problem.

If I had mod points I'd mod you troll. I hardly ever do that, but really, you're just picking a dumb fight.

Of course, I'm the putz who bit on it ...

Re:Well, duh.

[snowraver1]

I wonder how much this really has to do with the carrier. Personally, I would think that it has more to do with the phone manufacturer. I know that my cell phone (LG Chocolate flip) makes a sound when you dial 911.

I'm pretty sure that when the phone companies make a contract with a carrier, they just slap some crappy branding all over it, and (for me on Telus anyways) disable every feature that they possibly can, then charge you to use thier "service" (ie. disabling bluetooth file transfer so that you can't put ring tones on without paying them; Making it so that mp3's you store on the memory card cannot be copied to the phone internal memory, again so that they can bend you over for $3.00 + download fee for a ring tone.) I fucking HATE Telus.

Doh!

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

This is the kind of story that shows up in Risks Digest [ncl.ac.uk] all the time - an email digest that ought to be mandatory reading for anyone involved in technological development.

Clearly the goal is to reduce bogus 911 calls that occur when a cell phone's keys get accidentally pushed, like in a purse or someone's pocket. But the first question that should have been asked is just how much of a problem are such calls? Yes, we get the occasional anecdote [google.com] of cell phones gone wild, but is it really such an overwhelming problem that it needs to be fixed at all?

Second, presuming it is so common that 'something must be done' -- then they should have come up with an escalating alarm - like say more than 5 consecutive calls to 911 or more than 10 minutes air-time connected to 911 and the phone plays a short recorded message through the phone so both parties can hear it saying that it is going to start making noise in a few more minutes unless the user - or the 911 operator on the other end - types in a short number to disarm it. Even if the user doesn't know what to do in response to the message, the 911 people will quickly become familiar with such warnings that they will know what to do. (I'm assuming that 911 operators have actual keypads at their stations, that might not be the case.)

Re:Very Dangerous

[Rogerborg]

I'm sure the people who designed this feature were bright enough to consider how it might be used, and when.

Hello. I work for and with "those people". And no, they're not bright enough. I mean the people who actually make the decisions really, really aren't. They may ask their lawyers whether they're more likely to be sued for not doing it than for doing it, but they won't take you or my best interests into consideration for one second. Really, they won't.

Re:911 Abuse

[Anonymous Coward]

>Honestly, sometimes I wish Slashdot didn't allow AC posts. It would solve a lot of hot wind problems like this one.

It may not be obvious to you, but AC posts are vital to slashdot IMHO. I often post things from work AC that are about my employer, or contain relatively privileged information that I would like the community to know without being readily traceable to me. Yes they are also used for abuse, but these are quickly modded -1.

When I have mod points I specifically look for insightful or informative AC posts, as I have to post AC for some of my best comments.

Re:wrong way to eliminate accidental 911 calls

[hjf]

unless you're in a car crash and passed out just after you dialed 112. yeah, way better system.

Re:this happened in texas?

[Paradise Pete]

911 then told me to stay outside and wait for police. No thanks. If I had caught the intruder, they would have either given up and waited for the police, or been clobbered by me.

I think you left out one possible outcome. If you don't go in all that's at risk is your stuff. By going in you've raised the stakes enormously. It doesn't matter if you are the toughest guy who ever walked the planet. As they say in poker, "Going all-in works every time. Right up until it doesn't."

Re:Very Dangerous

[mpe]

I'm sure the people who designed this feature were bright enough to consider how it might be used, and when. I suspect that there is a great body of evidence showing that attracting attention to a bad situation is a very good strategy: scream for help, wave your arms, sound an alarm. These strategies are effective in a great majority of cases.

Whilst there might be an argument for having a phone be capable of operating as a siren/ELB/etc. It's hard to see any situation where you'd want it to do this at the same time as making a telephone call.

Re:this happened in texas?

[sribe]

So why wasn't she carrying her pistol?

Even if she had been carrying a pistol, dialing 911 should still have been (at least nearly) her first act. And her phone should not have started making noise.

Re:Well, duh.

[jandrese]

Why not just put a "blind person mode" on the phone (probably with a more PC name)? This mode would emphasize voice dialing and whatnot and have the 911 alarm, but could be turned off by people who do not need it. In fact it could be off by default and turned on by the representative at the store if the person buying the phone needs it.

Re:Well, duh.

[jamar0303]

No, I'm used to using 112 for emergencies- it's the universal emergency number. Again, that was an accident when I put it down and let some kid fool with it. Of course, the call dropping before it could connect kind of shattered my confidence.

Re:Well, duh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Assuming I'm understanding the law correctly (and I'll admit, I might not, IANAL) the concept here is that all devices must always be accessible. The theory being that a blind person might have to borrow your cell phone in an emergency and be able to dial 911.

Which, of course, such an audible tone won't really help with. But whatever, it's the law. Congress doesn't have to make sense.

Re:Well, duh.

[Asmor]

I think the point is more about when a phone is dialed accidentally... For example, I used to have a phone which would dial 911 if you held down the 1 key for a couple seconds, and there was no way to change that.

Re:In a closet!

[courteaudotbiz]

You got it! I'm on the line with Verizon right now, I immediately change my carrier to get that really cool feature!!!

Re:Well, duh.

[UncleTogie]

This mode would emphasize voice dialing and whatnot and have the 911 alarm, but could be turned off by people who do not need it.

What amuses me is that they call a loud SOUND an "accessibility feature" for the disabled, ignoring the fact that it does us deaf folks no good... In fact, it might be MORE dangerous; I might not have heard the "alarm" and left it going... and for those asking what a deaf guy has a phone for, 911 is it. Even if I can't hear the operator, I can keep repeating the important info {location, problem, situation} until someone shows... assuming the bad guys don't hear me or my phone first.

If the jerks had really considered the entire subset of disabled, they might have realized that a "vibrate" pulse every 3-5 seconds is the only solution for both deaf and blind people.

I'm not asking them to bend over backwards for me; I'm just asking the FCC to put more thought into these regulations.

Re:Very Dangerous

[sumdumass]

Drawing attention only works in areas where people are likely to be and when there isn't some mental issue with the attacker and he/she is still able to tell right from wrong.

Cops use whistles to direct traffic not stop criminals caught in the act. They know what works best and what is the safest when in a situation. I agree that you can't always carry a weapon that would be effective at protecting yourself. So hiding and calling for help is probably the safest thing to do in a lot of situations outside of getting away from it.

Re:Very Dangerous

[mav[LAG]]

In other words, if X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one...

I hate automatic systems like this

[Just Some Guy]

I don't like automated "helper" systems like this that can't be overridden. It's my nature to try to come up with a situation where they'll do more harm than good. My pet anti-favorite is always-on headlights on cars. I imagine a scenario where you're in the middle of nowhere and trying to get away from the bad guys before they can find you. You ease the keys into the ignition of your silent-running electric car, take a deep breath, and turn it on - only to see your lights^Wbeacons come on. The bad guys jump out and shoot you.

Safety features are great, but they must be overrideable.