Should Netflix and Hulu give you emergency alerts?

Sun Mar 10 21:37:30 UTC 2019

On Sun, 10 Mar 2019, Scott Weeks wrote:
> No, it is overreach and Doing The Wrong Thing (AKA we do
> evil now even though we said we wouldn't in the beginning)
> for businesses as well.

There is weird business feedback loop between proprietary app creators and 
smart device platform providers.

Governments issue public alerts without restrictions. You don't need to 
reveal your location, how you use the alerts, etc. You paid for it as 
part of your taxes.  There is not extra charge by the government to get 
emergency alerts.

Proprietary Apps take that public information to build up walled gardens, 
with restrictions and harvest information from the users of those Apps.

Addon proprietary App vendors heavily lobby to discourage platform 
creators and the government from competing with them. Some companies 
have regularly lobby congress to prohibit the National Weather 
Service from directly distributing weather forecasts and warnings directly 
to the public, instead they argue the NWS should distribute the 
information only to commercial companies which would then sell the 
information to the public.

Emergency alerts on cell phones went through this in the early 2000s.

Lobbyists discouraged adding emergency alerts as part of the base mobile 
operating system. In theory subscribers could get alerts through add-on 
apps and SMS messages on cell phones. The feedback loop meant subscribers 
had to pay SMS message fees and add-on App data; cellular carriers liked 
the revenue enhancement.  Mobile device manufacturers were paid by 
junkware Apps to include those junk apps on phones. Phone manufacturers 
liked the junkware revenue stream.

This money feedback loop wasn't very effecient at actually alerting the 
public. Typically, less than 15% of cellular subscribers used the 
proprietary alert apps. The junkware apps monitized the subscribers by 
collecting massive amounts of tracking information. The junkware alert 
apps didn't work very well either, depending on when their venture 
capital ran-out and stopped.

I don't know what the current Amazon, Apple or Google App store feedback 
loop is like for Apps on smart devices.

Imagine in 2024, after a major climate change driven severe weather 
disaster, the CEOs of several Smart Device platform companies testify 
before congress:

Senator: In 2024, smart devices are now in 90% of homes. Smart devices 
have replaced radio and TV as the primary source of entertainment and 
information programming for the public.  Why don't your smart devices 
include emergency alerts?

CEOs: Emergency alerts aren't revenue generating, and we get money from 
proprietary App companies not to compete with them.

Senator: Do you care that your customers' were hurt by the increasingly 
severe weather events?

CEOs: We consider it a revenue benefit that customers need to buy new 
stuff after their homes are destroyed.  We think it contributes to our 
economic growth this quarter.

I wonder what the Amazon, Apple and Google smart device product pitch 
meetings are like.