It’s all about the system ES-Alert. The objective is to be able to quickly alert all the people who are in a certain territory, about a danger that may be imminent. For example, they could alert in case of heavy rainfall, earthquake, fire… It is basically a message that reaches mobile phones.
Alert messages and privacy
We have seen many messages on social networks in the last hours related to this alert message. Many users have questioned whether or not it can be a problem for the privacy. The truth is that this type of message will not affect your privacy. They are not sending you an SMS, they are not even going to be using your mobile number.
So how exactly does it work? What the ES-Alert system does is send a notification to all mobiles that are connected to antennas in a certain area. It can simply be a neighborhood, a city, a province, the whole country… But that alert will reach you even if you don’t have a SIM card in your phone.
This technology is known as Cell Broadcast o Diffusion by Cells. It is a protocol for, as its name indicates, diffusion of alerts of all kinds that there may be. It is integrated into the National Alert Network and allows the Civil Protection authorities to send these notices.
therefore really they will not obtain data from you. They will not collect information such as where you are at that moment, who is behind that mobile, etc. It is simply an alert that will sound on your mobile to inform you of something that is happening or could happen.
Our advice is to always have these emergency alerts enabled, but you will have the option to disable them or make adjustments. In the case of Android, you can enter Settings, Notifications, Advanced settings and Wireless emergency alerts. There you can check if you have them enabled, also configure so that the mobile vibrates or not, that it enunciates the text, etc. In the case of iOS, the process is similar.
It’s not a novelty
Although we have seen this alert message in the Community of Madrid, due to the emergency due to heavy rains, it is not really a novelty. Already has jumped on other occasions, in different parts of Spain. In other countries, moreover, it has been around for years. In fact, it’s something that, at some point, has to meet a European Union deadline for all member states to use.
Keep in mind that this system has nothing to do with SMS or emails that you could receive Even the latter could be a scam, spam or just plain fake. The ES-Alert alert messages will appear on your screen, as a notification, and you will be able to close it without problems.
In short, if you have doubts about whether the alert system could be a privacy problem, as you have seen, it is not. Just as you can use messaging programs without a phone number, it works even without you having a SIM inserted in your mobile. It will reach anyone who is connected to the corresponding antennas.
