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Google alert failed to warn people of Turkey earthquake (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 1 year ago by BrikoX@lemmy.zip to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/794897

Archived version: https://archive.ph/z5TiN
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230728005143/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66316462

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[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

Okay, thanks. I got some quake alerts in Japan before, but I also thought that was a network message, not a specifically Google alert.

I'm just curious why Google is specifically taking the blame here, like if they took responsibility or announced intention to report on future quakes and then dropped the ball or something.

[-] derin@lemmy.beru.co 1 points 1 year ago

Google is not taking any blame. Google prepared an optional Earthquake alert system, it did not work, and they're claiming it did.

No one asked for such a system in the first place from them, and while it's nice they'd go about doing something like that in Earthquake prone parts of the world, if it doesn't work they probably shouldn't get up and start declaring "No no, it totally did work, dunno what those survivors are on about."

Is this something Google regularly does? Release alerts about earthquakes? Is it specific to Turkey or global?

From the article (which you should read, it's quite short):

Google's Android Earthquake Alert System was announced in Turkey in June 2021. The system is operational in dozens of countries around the world. The company describes the ability to send quake alerts as a "core" part of its Android service.

[-] FigMcLargeHuge@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Google prepared an optional Earthquake alert system

If you read between the lines of their 'earthquake system', it is obviously polling your phone on a very short and granular basis and pulling movement data, which is something no one seems to be talking about. This is the kind of data collection that pisses me off, and they get away with this by trying to pass this off as some sort of wonderful life saving system that I bet no one even knew they were contributing data to.