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Comment by rascul | Hacker News Reader

> that buzzed every phone and radio in the entire United States

Unless you turned that crap off.

By curiosity, why do you say it is crap ?

They've never given me any information that's relevant or useful and they're annoying. And apparently not overly difficult to spoof.

Perhaps you are thinking of other kinds/levels of alerts?

Was there ever a Presidential Alert before that test? Can they be disabled?

> Perhaps you are thinking of other kinds/levels of alerts?

No, I'm thinking of all levels.

> Was there ever a Presidential Alert before that test?

I can recall two presidential alerts, both tests. This affirms my point about not getting anything useful.

> Can they be disabled?

I guess that depends on your phone. I've been able to on Android.

I wouldn't mind getting a "nukes in 30 minutes" warning (if it was real) but most of the alerts are useless. What use is an amber alert for "somebody kidnapped a kid (custody dispute) 500 miles away from you, be on the lookout for a white truck"? I left those alerts on for a few years because I felt guilty about turning them off, but none of the alerts were ever actionable.

I wonder if there's an uptick in auto accidents whenever one t these alerts goes out.

BOLOs are usually Amber Alerts, which are distinct from National Emergency Broadcasts. You can turn off AAs, I don't think you can turn off the others.

I turned them off. Can't remember how. You might be able to.

It can't be turned off.

I've turned them off on every android phone I've had. I can't ever remember how though so I have to dig around every time.

Without rooting or using custom roms? AFAIK all stock roms allow you to turn off most alert types, but not this one specifically.

Without rooting or using custom roms. Current phone is stock Oneplus 6T with all alerts disabled. I got none yesterday.

Edit: At first I incorrectly mentioned 7T. 6T is my current phone. I should probably do something about that eventually as it doesn't get updates anymore. I see in the settings something for alerts but it doesn't open. I have no clue how I disabled them but I did.

Same. I have an iPhone now and was annoyed that I can't. I have all "Government Alerts" disabled in settings and I still got the test alert yesterday.

It's going to be interesting times when you both cannot trust and cannot disable these sorts of push messages and alerts.

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