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Comment by nend | Hacker News Reader

Ever receive a flash flood warning, severe weather alert (lightning, tornado), or amber alert on your phone? It'd be the same notification. I'm sure there's others too, those are just the ones I've received before.

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I’m so glad apple separated amber alerts from the emergency broadcasts. Used to get two or three a week which made it completely useless.

On Android, I've unsubscribed from everything except presidential alerts.

I had my last straw when I started getting alerts for wear a mask and other ridiculous crap.

It would be really nice on Android if I could get the alerts without the obnoxious noise.

Since the noise and the alert are tied together, and I absolutely detest the noise, I have the alert turned off.

It's silly that you can turn off the ring for a phone call and still get the notification, but can't turn off the alert noise without also turning off the alert notification.

Yeah, it's supposed to be grating because it's a rare even but sending daily covid advice is honestly a waste of a good system.

I’ve been a supporter of the government campaigning and messaging here in New Zealand. However if this was happening I’d be most unhappy.

It’s close to the Orwell ‘2 minute hate’.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate

Yeah, the original idea was excellent. Great for warnings or child abductions but now even the child abduction stuff is annoying. Some parents battling over the custody of their kids is now a child abduction

Depends on the jurisdiction. In Canada, it’s all the same.

It's absolutely crazy that whoever decided to create the warning system in Canada decided to roll "amber alerts" and "presidential alerts" into the same alert. So now I can get woken up in the middle of the night for an alert for a lost child hundreds of kilometers away that I can't do anything about - and, even if I turn off amber alerts, they still come in as a presidential message.

This has happened numerous times.

Can't you turn off Presidential alerts?

No. It's the one level you can't turn off.

If I lived in Canada and got a presidential alert, I'd be pretty alarmed. If I got a prime minister alert, less so.

I have mixed feelings on Amber Alerts. I'm in Texas, and I receive alerts for things that are happening so far away from me, that most states could fit inside the distance apart. Seems like there should be some sort of max distance away for the alerts to be issued.

I've also wondered if useable information has been received from these alerts, or if it's just a bit of psychology being used against the perps when the alert about them goes off on their phone.

The majority of amber alerts are from parents in custody disputes. Mom says dad stole the kids or visa versa. They really should not be putting these cases into the same category as abductions.

There should be a fine for this. I understand that there are situations where a parent does take their kids where it would actually fall under abduction/kidnapping. However, if parents are abusing the alert system for minor custody disputes, then this should be handled with a severe punishment. Almost to the point of losing the custody battle if they're that immature.

The alerts are sent by police, not parents. I was curious and at one point went thru a year's records for NY state amber alerts. There were zero instances of stranger abduction. Most cases are as you say children taken by parent without custodial rights, with a secondary set of teens running away, sometimes with an older romantic partner.

Yeah if you give a button to an employee and tell them “you won’t ever be yelled at for pushing the button, but if you fail to push the button and something happens you will be yelled at” - that button is going to get pushed. A lot.

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