It could be just the ticket to track people.
“What the system does is actually follow you around wherever you are going,”
See articles below
Smartphones now set up with automatic alert system for weather, national emergencies
http://www.twincities.com/ci_20931233/smartphones-now-set-up-automatic-alert-system-weather
Everyone will receive the “weather emergency alerts” automatically, provided they have a newer smartphone or an older one with an up-to-date operating system. The WEA system is rolling out in Minnesota this week via the National Weather Service and Department of Homeland Security.
Snip
“What the system does is actually follow you around wherever you are going,” based on users’ proximity to cellular towers, said Todd Krause, the weather-warning coordinator at the National Weather Service’s office in Chanhassen.
And
A New Microchip Knows Just Where You Are, Indoors and Out
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/427451/a-new-microchip-knows-just-where-you-are-indoors/
“Broadcom has just rolled out a chip for smart phones that promises to indicate location ultra-precisely, possibly within a few centimeters, vertically and horizontally, indoors and out,”
From the first link you posted about the upgraded software for older phones & Smartphone alerts:
http://www.twincities.com/ci_20931233/smartphones-now-set-up-automatic-alert-system-weather
>>> Everyone will receive the “wireless emergency alerts” automatically... via the National Weather Service and Department of Homeland Security. This nationwide mobile-alert system won’t only transmit severe-weather alerts. Phone users also will get an Ambert (sic) Alert if a child goes missing. If the United States faces a nationwide crisis of some sort, the president can transmit a mobile alert that pops up automatically on phones across the country... The new 90-character-or-less alerts resemble regular texts but are a different form of messaging that includes a distinctive ringtone and also makes a device vibrate... Smartphone users can choose not to receive Amber and weather alerts — though public-safety officials urge them not to do the latter for their own protection — but can’t block presidential alerts. <<<
Let me translate this for those in Rio Linda, based on actual experience with a FRiend’s cable TV system with DVR which automatically provides such a “service” - and remember, this is a feature, not a bug.
First, the emergency alert totally hijacks your mobile device - er, TV. The alert tone which precedes and follows the actual emergency message hijacks your volume control. No matter if you turned down the TV volume to sleep yourself or allow your partner or child to sleep, that tone bypasses the control you set and issues at ear-splitting volume. You can’t disable it, nor can you set it to at least be silent for Amber Alerts. If the TV is on, everybody’s awake by the time it’s finished blaring. (And if you were DVR’ing a show at the time - too bad.)
That the (any) president gets to seize control of one’s mobile devices and impose himself by phone, TV and a plethora of privately owned media devices is disgusting. Maybe the shear number of wrecks as drivers nationwide simultaneously reach for their warbling phones will put this insanity to bed before it becomes entrenched as “good for the chilrun” but I doubt it.