Cellphones Get Government Chips For Disaster Alert 374
Jeremiah Cornelius writes "The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, said the Commercial Mobile Alert System that Congress approved in 2006 will direct messages to cellphones in case of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other serious emergency. There will be at least three levels of messages, ranging from a critical national alert from the president to warnings about impending or occurring national disasters to alerts about missing or abducted children. The alert would show up on the phone's front screen, instead of the traditional text message inbox, and arrive with a distinct ring and probably a vibration. People will be able to opt out of receiving all but the presidential alerts."
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Presidential Alerts? (Score:3, Interesting)
I can just now see Anonymous bringing havoc to the alert system with announcements from President Pedobear
Re:No Texting While Driving! (Score:4, Interesting)
People tend to be lazy and clueless. Warrantless search & seizure is not so routine that every single American is affected by it directly, and in many cases those affected don't even know that. Many don't really care about the Constitution either, or don't understand it to realize that it's being violated.
Unblockable political spam that everyone gets, on the other hand, is very easy to understand as "bad". Don't worry about that.