more on Emergency text messages and AB 2231

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: March 31, 2006 4:18:15 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Emergency text messages and AB 2231


Dave,

In a reply to the original query, I noted some potential problems
with the concept of blanket text messaging in emergency situations.

Here's a summary:

The issue of "regionality" is obvious and had been noted in the
initial set of questions.  Nowadays a phone with a particular area
code doesn't necessarily indicate that the user lives or works in
that vicinity.  Bringing realtime location data into the mix is a
significantly more complex effort.

There also may be genuine capacity issues in trying to send out gobs
of text messages in a short period in some cases.  The text messaging
infrastructure has traditionally been rather low capacity (at least
compared with new data services).

Another concern is that since text messages are queued, many people
would potentially receive emergency text messages hours or even days
after their being sent, if the targeted phones were not in range or
simply were turned off when the original messages became queued.
(I know many people who keep their phones turned off almost all the
time, and only make occasional outgoing cell phone calls, sometimes
days apart.)  Such "late" alerts could be highly confusing to such
people who might not notice the old date/timestamps on the messages.

While it's of course possible that the cell carriers could
specifically cancel out undelivered emergency text messages after
some period of time, that's yet another functionality requirement
beyond the extent to which all undelivered text messages might be
deleted after some (possibly prolonged) interval regardless of their
priority status.

But a particularly insidious problem is less obvious at first glance,
if we're really talking about sending text messages to *every* cell
phone in a region, not just to people "subscribing" to emergency
messages in advance.

Many people simply do not ever use text messaging and have
absolutely no idea how to deal with it.  I personally know folks who
get absolutely flustered if a text message notice pops up on their
phone (several of these individuals -- but by no means all -- are
elderly) They don't know how to read a text message.  They use only
the minimum functionality of the phone for simple voice calls.

In fact, forcing text messages on such persons actually runs the risk
of causing them to be unable to quickly make voice calls in an
emergency situation.  I've seen cell phone users get so confused by
the text message alerts on some phones, that they don't know how to
rapidly clear those phones for a voice call.  This is a real and
potentially serious issue that could come from forcing a type of
message on people who are not familiar with them, and who may be
only minimally skilled with using the phones in the first place.

I have far fewer concerns (apart from possible system capacity
issues) with establishing an "opt-in" emergency text notification
environment.  But a system that send to everyone could easily do
more harm than good.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
   - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com


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