this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2024
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There is an emergency function in all mobile phones that overrides everything else and blasts a loud sound and takes over the whole screen. It is there for emergencies, like when the people in Hawaii got told that the apocalypse has come by accident. In the NL you get one per month when they check the air raid alert sirens. The US uses them for alerts for missing children.
Your phone would also do it if you are in the area, no matter where you bought it or your carrier.
Ok, but how do you disable it? Is it an Android setting, something I can do over adb, do I have to root the device, install a custom ROM, or disable part of the hardware?
It's an Android setting. Assuming you're in the US, you can disable all warning channels (including Amber alerts) except the National one, which I believe has to be on by law, but is only supposed to be used in apocalypse level emergencies. The Hawaii thing was triggered by accident, iirc.
On my S24, it's in Settings > Safety and Emergency > Wireless Emergency Alerts.
I don't know if it's even possible to disable the National warnings, but you'd likely have to use adb or root your phone to do it.
Thanks, but I'm in the UK, where only the national ones are ever used. I don't want to disable it, because I think it's useful, but I want control over my device, so I want to be making the choice to keep it enabled, if you know what I mean.
Oh neat, my phone has a function to detect tracking devices.
We live in hell.
So the backdoors are all but confirmed ? Or is it some different tech ?
It's not really a backdoor. It's an Emergency Broadcast System. Nobody can access your phone through it, they just blast data out to everyone in a preconfigured way that your phone knows to receive and relay to you.
It's not really any different than receiving a text message except that the text message comes with its own dedicated sound so that you know an emergency is happening.
Yep but someone mentioned you can't opt out .
That has nothing to do with whether something is a backdoor.
It's not a backdoor. It's a broadcast message system, like the emergency alert system used on television.
So why no opt out ? Atleast according to one person who saud that here.