The text of the order itself consists of 2,205 words and seven-(7) sections and multiple subsections. The policy statement (section one) seems innocuous and actually beneficial to the continuity of communications within the U.S., until one begins to dissect the order and consider it in context with other Obama issued directives. Extensive analysis of this order, in tandem with other recent Obama orders and signed legislation, suggests a disconcerting pattern of potential overreach by Obama into the area of normal and customary commercial communication systems.
Based on our analysis of this order, it would appear that the implementation of emergency communications by Obama, using all forms of wired and wireless communication systems, is redirected through the Executive branch and could expand such takeover abilities beyond the limits of an actual act of war, national emergency, or other event impacting the national security of the U.S. The order also mandates that the Department of Homeland Security develops and submits such a plan to Obama within sixty-(60) days of this order (section 5.2(h)).
Additionally, Obama’s order completely revokes Executive Order 12472 of April 3, 1984, as amended, which established and defined the National Communication System (NCS). The purpose of the NCS is to “assist the President” in matters of emergency communications in war-time emergencies, and during “those crises or emergencies in which the exercise of the President’s war power functions is not required or permitted by law.” By the stroke of his pen, such distinctions are removed.
SOURCE: TIMES 24/7
COMPLETE ARTICLE: CANADA FREE PRESS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will Apple customers be forcibly bombarded with texts from President Obama's campaign?
Civil liberty commentators have expressed concerns that by signing up to the Personal Localised Alerting Network (PLAN), Apple have turned their phones into part of President Obama's re-election campaign.
The un-hearalded changes to Apples iOS 6 mobile operating system give customers the option to opt in or out of receiving alerts from FEMA or the Amber Alert program, but not to messages directly from the president.
This raises the possibility of Barack Obama using the PLAN program to send campaign messages to all of Apples mobile device users, abusing the emergency alert program.
In compliance with the National Alerting Program (NAP), Apple's devices will be able to receive important messages from the Wireless Emergency Alerts system which tells Americans statewide and nationally about serious weather or disasters.
However, now that Apple is a fully functioning part of the NAP, this is the first time that the federal executive has had a direct line to the millions of Americans who use cell-phones.
Commentators such as Infowars, Alex Jones worry that the federal government could miss-use this power.
Instead of using the emergency broadcast system for national emergencies as the radio and television set-up has always been, he feels that the frequency of mobile phone use would make updates from the president hard to ignore if they were sent.
Indeed, the ability to text any and every American telephone is something that has been discussed since PLAN, the emergency alert system was announced last year.
Based around an expansion of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) emergency alert system, the original alerts were designed be sent out over radio and television in the event of a nuclear war.
However, PLAN is text-based and allows warnings to be localised or sent nationally.
Rolled out by both the FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), it can only be done with the cooperation of the cellular service providers and manufacturers, which Apple has now done.
'PLAN ensures that emergency alerts will not get stuck in highly congested user areas, which can happen with standard mobile voice and texting services,' said FEMA to the LA Times.
In addition to the text alerts sent by PLAN through to mobile phones, they will also carry a different vibrate and alert noise to differentiated them to people with hearing or vision difficulties.
However, as commentators such as Jones protest, even though the alerts can be switched off for missing children and emergency events, any communication from the president can not be.
This essentially means that every single new Apple wireless device is now contactable by Barack Obama.
'The stage has been set for a consistently growing number of people in the US to have capability to receive alerts from local, state, and federal officials through the initiative led by FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System program,' Rick Wimberly wrote on his blog on Emergency Management.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOMELAND SECURITY BUREAU***
Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN)
What is PLAN?
- The Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) (technically the Commercial Mobile Alert System) is a new public safety system that allows customers who own an enabled mobile device to receive geographically-targeted text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their area.
- This new technology ensures that emergency alerts will not get stuck in highly congested user areas which can happen with standard mobile voice and texting services. PLAN enables government officials to target emergency alerts to specific geographic areas through cell towers, which push the information to dedicated receivers in PLAN-enabled mobile devices.
- PLAN complements the existing Emergency Alert System (EAS) which is provided by broadcasters and other media service providers and overseen by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Weather Service at the federal level. PLAN and EAS are part of an integrated public alert and warning system being developed by FEMA to allow the public to receive emergency alerts over multiple communications technologies.
- Wireless companies volunteer to participate in PLAN. PLAN is the result of a unique public/private partnership between the FCC, FEMA and the wireless industry, with the singular objective of enhancing public safety.
- The FCC’s rules require participating wireless carriers to deploy PLAN technology by April 7, 2012. Some participants, however, have committed to offer PLAN ahead of schedule (i.e. by the end of 2011). These carriers include AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. PLAN was established pursuant to the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act.
How Does it Work?
- Authorized national, state or local government officials send alerts regarding public safety emergencies such as a tornado or a terrorist to PLAN.
- PLAN authenticates the alert, verifies that the sender is authorized, and sends it to participating wireless carriers.
- Participating wireless carriers push the alerts from cell towers to mobile phones in the affected area. The alerts appear like text messages on mobile devices.
Features
- Geographically Targeted: A customer living in downtown New York would not receive a threat alert if he or she happens to be in Chicago when the alert is sent. Similarly, someone visiting downtown New York from Chicago on that same day would receive the alert, assuming the customer has a PLAN-enabled mobile device and his or her wireless carriers participates in PLAN.
- Customers Automatically Signed Up: PLAN allows government officials to send emergency alerts to all subscribers with PLAN-capable devices if their wireless carriers participate in the program. Consumers do not need to sign-up for this service.
- Alerts Are Free: Customers do not pay to receive PLAN alerts.
- Covers Only Critical Emergency Alerts: Consumers will receive only three types of alerts from PLAN: (1) alerts issued by the President; (2) alerts involving imminent threats to safety of life; and (3) Amber Alerts. Participating carriers may allow subscribers to block all but the Presidential alerts.
- Unique Signal and Vibration: A PLAN alert will be accompanied by a unique attention signal and vibration, which is particularly helpful to people with hearing or vision-related disabilities.
Information on Carrier Participation
- FCC MASTER PLAN REGISTRY File (XLS) Last Updated: 07/05/2012. For further information concerning the FCC PLAN Registry, or to notify the FCC of changes to the PLAN Registry, contact Timothy May at timothy.may@fcc.gov.
Plan Documents
- FEMA and the FCC Announce Adoption of Standards for Commercial Mobile Alert System.
- PSHSB Sets Timetable for Implementation of Commercial Mobile Alert System
- CMAS Third Report and Order
- Third Report and Order Public Notice
- CMAS Reconsideration Order and Erratum
- CMAS Second Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
- CMAS First Report and Order
- WARN Act
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
US government mandates special "emergency alerts" chip in all cell phones by 2012
The service is called "Personal Localized Alerting Network" or "PLAN" (technically called the "Commercial Mobile Alert System")
and is scheduled to be available in New York by the end of 2011 and
throughout the United States by April 2012, as a consequence of the
Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act passed by Congress in
2006, which allocated $106 million to fund the program[1].
All new phones will be required to have the special chip, and according to AT&T spokesman Robert Quinn, some iPhones and Android phones already have it. It is confirmed that the Droid X (released in June 2010) does support PLAN and has a special "Emergency Alerts" app. Although this means the chip has been out there for at least one year, there is no precise list of which phones have the chips.
Carriers that will participate ahead of schedule are AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. The alerts will be text-like messages of 90 characters or less, and they'll be geographically targeted using GPS technology (does this mean that the chip will send your location continuously?). Alerts will be accompanied by a unique attention signal and vibration (helpful to people with hearing or vision disabilities). The PLAN alert will appear as a pop-up text, different from regular text messages. PC World reported that the alerts "eventually might include audio and video content".
Alerts will be pushed via wireless carrier cell towers, but are designed to not suffer from the congestion that can affect regular SMS text messages.
The CMAS Third Report and Order mentions that cost recovery is left as a decision for carriers: they may choose to absorb the costs themselves, or pass them on to customers.
Phones that already have the PLAN technology
* Motorola Droid X (sources)
* Sanyo Innuendo (source: Sprint spokesperson Crystal Davis,
571-288-6806 , crystal.davisATsprint.com via Business Wire)
* Sanyo Vera (source: as above)
* Sprint "plans to launch more PLAN-capable mobile devices later this year, and include PLAN technology in all new Sprint phones by the end of 2011." (source: as above)
Has anyone heard of this? It's been 3 weeks since the news was out and I haven't seen any followup in the media. The technical information is also extremely scarce. A few questions can be raised.
Concerns with the PLAN chip
UPDATE: see a comment from reddit, which addresses most of these issues.
1. Why is there so little precise technical information on a measure that will affect every single phone manufactured since 2012?
2. The cited reason for having an extra chip embedded in each cell phone is that the current SMS infrastructure can get congested in times of emergency. However, PLAN still uses wireless carrier cell towers to push messages (as opposed to a different frequency, like the ones used for radio clock synchronization or GPS). The GSM standard already supports Cell Broadcast (CB) messaging. This FCC paper from 2007 states that "Cell broadcast is already resident in most network infrastructure and in most phones, so there is no need to build any towers, lay any cable, write any software, or replace terminals". What is the exact justification of the extra chip? If the existence of the chip is a misunderstanding of the media, then why don't existing phones work with the system already? Why do we need new phones that are "PLAN-capable"?
3. Why limit the system to 90 characters of text, instead of relying on the existing multimedia message infrastructure, which can be used to send, for example, such critical information as a photo of an evacuation map? Also, the system is not backward compatible with the over 300 million mobile phones already in place in the United States, while using SMS is (more on these issues). It will take a few years (5?) for all phones to support PLAN. How many lives will be lost in the meantime? SMS is available now. Also, old people, the ones most likely to be affected by certain kinds of emergencies, tend to use very simple phones and to be very late adopters of new technology. Their phones do support SMS though.
4. Does the technology use GPS, as BBC mentions? The battery drain and surveillance implications are major.
5. Users can't opt out of “Presidential” messages. What safeguards are in place that would prevent an oppressive government from abusing this technology?
6. The design of the system is not available. How can the users know that it won't be abused? The chip could be programmed to snap a picture from the phone's camera, or to covertly record audio, upon receiving a certain signal. Remote activation of a phone's microphone has already been done by the FBI using the so-called roving bug.
7. What is to prevent the government-required software from receiving a certain signal or message which would disable the cell phone or its Internet access (useful in times of civil unrest, as has been seen in the Arab Spring revolts)?
8. Will rooting phones or custom ROMs become illegal, especially if one modifies the function of how the PLAN network interacts with the smartphone?
Sources and media coverage
The only first-hand press coverage I've seen dates from May 10-11, and there's been nothing since.
* National Emergency Alert System Set To Launch In NYC, with audio from the announcement. 800+ users comments, mostly against the idea. "For now, the alerts are capable on certain high-end cell phones but starting next year, all cell phones will be required to have the chip that receives alerts."
* Engadget - text of the press release. "Participating carriers are including PLAN chips in their new phones, and many recently purchased phones already have the chip and only will require a software upgrade."
* Wired: Bloomberg, FEMA, FCC Detail NYC Emergency Notification System: "The assembled wireless-company executives, including AT&T CEO Randall L. Stephenson and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, pledged their support for the system and said new devices will be equipped with a PLAN chip. [...] a list of compatible phones would be posted soon on the FCC’s website [...] Officials didn’t go into detail about the technical specifications of the new network."
* PC World: FCC Calls for Mobile Alert System (2008): "The alerts initially would be text only, though with vibration and audio signals for people with disabilities. They eventually might include audio and video content." (confirmed at FCC's site)
* MacDailyNews: U.S. gov’t mandates special chip in all cellphones; users can’t opt out of presidential messages: "It will use GPS technology and will send some of the alerts based on the location of the phone user."
* Daily Mail UK: Don't write off a text message from the president as a prank: It's an emergency and he might just save your life...: "A special chip is required to allow the phone to receive the messages"
* NY Times: Emergency Alert System Expected for Cellphones: "special chip [...] is currently included in some higher-end smartphones like the latest iPhones"
* USA Today: Cellphones get emergency alerts: "Some current cellphones, including some iPhones and some Android phones, already have the circuitry required to receive PLAN alerts. The iPhones that have the capacity to get alerts, says AT&T's Robert Quinn, will require software modifications. New AT&T phones due out in October will be PLAN-ready."
* NY Post: "Officials said at least three models already have the chip: the Droid X, the iPhone 4 and the Innuendo." The emergency alert feature and app (which can't be uninstalled) are confirmed on the Droid X. Note that the Droid X was released in July 2010.
* BBC: Mobile phone emergency alert system to launch in US: "Mr Bloomberg unveiled the Personal Localized Alerting Network, or Plan, on Tuesday, explaining that the system will implemented through a special chip installed on new mobile phones. The system works through GPS technology and will send some of the alerts based on a user's location."
* AFP: US alert system targets mobile phones: "The alerts will be text-like messages of 90 characters or less."
* Associated Press: Cellphone alert system announced in NYC: "A special chip is required to allow the phone to receive the messages. Some smartphones already have the chip, and software updates will be available when the network goes online later this year."
* FEMA page - no technical details, and nothing beyond what the press said
* slashdot and reddit
All new phones will be required to have the special chip, and according to AT&T spokesman Robert Quinn, some iPhones and Android phones already have it. It is confirmed that the Droid X (released in June 2010) does support PLAN and has a special "Emergency Alerts" app. Although this means the chip has been out there for at least one year, there is no precise list of which phones have the chips.
Carriers that will participate ahead of schedule are AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. The alerts will be text-like messages of 90 characters or less, and they'll be geographically targeted using GPS technology (does this mean that the chip will send your location continuously?). Alerts will be accompanied by a unique attention signal and vibration (helpful to people with hearing or vision disabilities). The PLAN alert will appear as a pop-up text, different from regular text messages. PC World reported that the alerts "eventually might include audio and video content".
Alerts will be pushed via wireless carrier cell towers, but are designed to not suffer from the congestion that can affect regular SMS text messages.
The CMAS Third Report and Order mentions that cost recovery is left as a decision for carriers: they may choose to absorb the costs themselves, or pass them on to customers.
Phones that already have the PLAN technology
* Motorola Droid X (sources)
* Sanyo Innuendo (source: Sprint spokesperson Crystal Davis,
571-288-6806 , crystal.davisATsprint.com via Business Wire)* Sanyo Vera (source: as above)
* Sprint "plans to launch more PLAN-capable mobile devices later this year, and include PLAN technology in all new Sprint phones by the end of 2011." (source: as above)
Has anyone heard of this? It's been 3 weeks since the news was out and I haven't seen any followup in the media. The technical information is also extremely scarce. A few questions can be raised.
Concerns with the PLAN chip
UPDATE: see a comment from reddit, which addresses most of these issues.
1. Why is there so little precise technical information on a measure that will affect every single phone manufactured since 2012?
2. The cited reason for having an extra chip embedded in each cell phone is that the current SMS infrastructure can get congested in times of emergency. However, PLAN still uses wireless carrier cell towers to push messages (as opposed to a different frequency, like the ones used for radio clock synchronization or GPS). The GSM standard already supports Cell Broadcast (CB) messaging. This FCC paper from 2007 states that "Cell broadcast is already resident in most network infrastructure and in most phones, so there is no need to build any towers, lay any cable, write any software, or replace terminals". What is the exact justification of the extra chip? If the existence of the chip is a misunderstanding of the media, then why don't existing phones work with the system already? Why do we need new phones that are "PLAN-capable"?
3. Why limit the system to 90 characters of text, instead of relying on the existing multimedia message infrastructure, which can be used to send, for example, such critical information as a photo of an evacuation map? Also, the system is not backward compatible with the over 300 million mobile phones already in place in the United States, while using SMS is (more on these issues). It will take a few years (5?) for all phones to support PLAN. How many lives will be lost in the meantime? SMS is available now. Also, old people, the ones most likely to be affected by certain kinds of emergencies, tend to use very simple phones and to be very late adopters of new technology. Their phones do support SMS though.
4. Does the technology use GPS, as BBC mentions? The battery drain and surveillance implications are major.
5. Users can't opt out of “Presidential” messages. What safeguards are in place that would prevent an oppressive government from abusing this technology?
6. The design of the system is not available. How can the users know that it won't be abused? The chip could be programmed to snap a picture from the phone's camera, or to covertly record audio, upon receiving a certain signal. Remote activation of a phone's microphone has already been done by the FBI using the so-called roving bug.
7. What is to prevent the government-required software from receiving a certain signal or message which would disable the cell phone or its Internet access (useful in times of civil unrest, as has been seen in the Arab Spring revolts)?
8. Will rooting phones or custom ROMs become illegal, especially if one modifies the function of how the PLAN network interacts with the smartphone?
Sources and media coverage
The only first-hand press coverage I've seen dates from May 10-11, and there's been nothing since.
* National Emergency Alert System Set To Launch In NYC, with audio from the announcement. 800+ users comments, mostly against the idea. "For now, the alerts are capable on certain high-end cell phones but starting next year, all cell phones will be required to have the chip that receives alerts."
* Engadget - text of the press release. "Participating carriers are including PLAN chips in their new phones, and many recently purchased phones already have the chip and only will require a software upgrade."
* Wired: Bloomberg, FEMA, FCC Detail NYC Emergency Notification System: "The assembled wireless-company executives, including AT&T CEO Randall L. Stephenson and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, pledged their support for the system and said new devices will be equipped with a PLAN chip. [...] a list of compatible phones would be posted soon on the FCC’s website [...] Officials didn’t go into detail about the technical specifications of the new network."
* PC World: FCC Calls for Mobile Alert System (2008): "The alerts initially would be text only, though with vibration and audio signals for people with disabilities. They eventually might include audio and video content." (confirmed at FCC's site)
* MacDailyNews: U.S. gov’t mandates special chip in all cellphones; users can’t opt out of presidential messages: "It will use GPS technology and will send some of the alerts based on the location of the phone user."
* Daily Mail UK: Don't write off a text message from the president as a prank: It's an emergency and he might just save your life...: "A special chip is required to allow the phone to receive the messages"
* NY Times: Emergency Alert System Expected for Cellphones: "special chip [...] is currently included in some higher-end smartphones like the latest iPhones"
* USA Today: Cellphones get emergency alerts: "Some current cellphones, including some iPhones and some Android phones, already have the circuitry required to receive PLAN alerts. The iPhones that have the capacity to get alerts, says AT&T's Robert Quinn, will require software modifications. New AT&T phones due out in October will be PLAN-ready."
* NY Post: "Officials said at least three models already have the chip: the Droid X, the iPhone 4 and the Innuendo." The emergency alert feature and app (which can't be uninstalled) are confirmed on the Droid X. Note that the Droid X was released in July 2010.
* BBC: Mobile phone emergency alert system to launch in US: "Mr Bloomberg unveiled the Personal Localized Alerting Network, or Plan, on Tuesday, explaining that the system will implemented through a special chip installed on new mobile phones. The system works through GPS technology and will send some of the alerts based on a user's location."
* AFP: US alert system targets mobile phones: "The alerts will be text-like messages of 90 characters or less."
* Associated Press: Cellphone alert system announced in NYC: "A special chip is required to allow the phone to receive the messages. Some smartphones already have the chip, and software updates will be available when the network goes online later this year."
* FEMA page - no technical details, and nothing beyond what the press said
* slashdot and reddit
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