Re: NDAA passed: Internet and Online Streaming Services Emergency Alert Study

[Mark Foster <blakjak () blakjak net>]

I respect this in principle, but hyperbole serves no-one - a smartphone only creates a "morass of privacy/security 
issues" if you let it. A basic smartphone can be had for less than $100 USD, which would give you calling, text 
messaging and emergency alerts. You don't need to spend many hundreds. (I myself run a mid-range device at about US$200 
worth. I won't spend $800 or anything close to that for something I could just as easily lose or drop or break in in my 
pocket whilst doing "active" things).

So one has to ask at some level, whether the addition of emergency alerts and the ability to maybe do some simple tasks 
on the fly when needed (which need not include social media, or the use of location tracking services, or even mobile 
data most of the time?) is worth anything to you.

I feel like a cheap smartphone would be preferable to a smart smoke detector. At least the bits required to deliver the 
required functionality are already there and not needing to be invented.

Mark.

On 6 January 2021 10:39:52 pm NZDT, Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 04, 2021 at 09:08:06PM -0600, Billy Crook wrote:
> > Then again how many people would benefit from adding this to online
> > streaming, but don't already have cellphones that have emergency
> alert
> > popups that get their attention.  The kind of people who don't have
> > smartphones are going to be the ones still watching bunny ears
> television
> > anyway.
>
> I've worked in science and technology for a long time, and I've chosen
> not
> to have a smartphone.  Not that I have to justify this decision to you,
> but: (1) I spend a fair amount of my time in environments with poor/no
> connectivity (2) I participate in activities that are likely to result
> in the destruction or loss of the phone and (3) I use my phone...for
> phone calls and the occasional text.  So spending $40 rather than $800,
> avoiding the morass of privacy/security issues involved in a
> smartphone,
> and maximizing available battery life seems like the best move.
>
> I know others who've made the same decision for similar reasons.
>
> ---rsk

-- 
Sent from a mobile device.