1 yr. ago • 96%

Google alert failed to warn people of Turkey earthquake

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

The tech giant claims millions of people were sent a warning before the deadly earthquake earlier this year.

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

News @lemmy.world Google alert failed to warn people of Turkey earthquake

16 comments

I live in Turkey and know numerous folks who were in the quake, or had family members in the quake. No one got any sort of alert.

Weird flex, Google.

Edit: To make things clear, I'm not implying that Google had any responsibility to anyone as far as Earthquake reporting is concerned; I simply find it odd they would insist that "no no no the system totally worked' when it clearly didn't. A lot of people died, maybe don't use this specific incident to make your point?

22
- Why in the fuck would you rely on fucking Google for something like this? I guess it's better then nothing, but this is a prime example of needing a proper, official service not ad company.
  
  16
  
  It's nice that an ad company lets us know when we might accidentally die but, yeah, not a first line of defense. Local government should be beating commercial sources to the punch every time vital information needs to go out.
  
  2
- I hope everyone you know is doing okay but I don't think Google is really flexing that the alert system didn't work. Tech isn't perfect but the system has worked with other earthquakes. If anything we can hope the tech gets better because this event will highlight gaps.
  
  11
  
  Google's product lead on the system, Micah Berman, insisted it had worked. "We are confident that this system fired and sent alerts," he told the BBC. However, the company did not provide evidence that these alerts were widely received.
  
  Personally I don't think they have any responsibility to build such a system, or even have it function properly. By "weird flex" I was specifically referring to the "We are confident that this system fired and sent alerts" line.
  
  Obviously my view is anecdotal (especially the whole "No one got any sort of alert" part of my original comment), so take what I say with a grain of salt!
  
  2
- Is this something Google regularly does? Release alerts about earthquakes?
  
  Is it specific to Turkey or global?
  
  4
  
  Idk... Tbh I am not sure what they aree talking about.
  
  Here in Spain and I think applies to Europe aswell the government can sent alerts per region or globally for any reason , Android and iOS handle it but I wouldn't exactly call it a Google alert of course if Google fuck it up it wouldn't work on Android phones. That said until recently at least here it had been barely tested, recently they did tests and finally seems to work fine but initially some phones didn't receive anything, but as far as I know it was ISP provider issues, again not sure how the delivery is done so you get the alert
  
  1
- I think if you create an alarm service like this, you do have a certain responsibility, because people will start to rely on that.
  
  2
  
  Nah. Relying on an ad subsidized service to alert you of danger is a bad idea both for the end user and the local government.
  
  There is a already an emergency alert system baked into every iPhone and Android device, the government is responsible for using it regardless of whether there is commercial service working in parallel to theirs.
  
  0
Obligatory XKCD

11
Probably a very stupid question: Could Turkey's Internet censorship (like DNS blocking) have any effect on the alert system?

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