Emergency alert doesn’t let government ‘take control’ of your exact location - Full Fact

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A video shared on Facebook appears to claim that the emergency alert system allows the government to “take control” of your exact location. While the alerts can be sent locally, to warn of nearby dangers, they do not track your location.

The emergency alert allows the government to take control of your exact location.The emergency alert system is designed to provide localised warnings about nearby danger to life, but this doesn’t mean your location is being tracked. The system uses cell towers to send a signal to all 4G and 5G phones nearby.to Facebook claims that the emergency alert system, tested in the UK on 23 April will allow unnamed actors to “take control of your exactly [sic] location”.

It’s not clear who the post is referring to when it uses the word “they”, but as the new Emergency Alert system is being launched by the UK government it appears that the post refers to government surveillance. In the clip Mr Schofield says: “What this is going to be used for, and it looks like it’s sort of geotagged so [...] it’s going to be localised and if you live by a river that’s about to flood then your phone in that area will say ‘the river’s about to flood, get out of your house’.”

 

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