Should Netflix and Hulu give you emergency alerts?

Tue Mar 12 19:16:58 UTC 2019

On Tue, 12 Mar 2019, Michael Thomas wrote:
> All the government needs to do is set up the server infrastructure to 
> source the alerts.

In the U.S., the IPAWS server infrastructure was set up in 2012. Akamai 
servers on many ISP networks carry emergency alert CAP messages.

However, the smart device ecosystem owners have so far refused to 
participate.

Amazon and Google have explicitly told me no. They have no plans to add 
support for emergency alerts to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

Apple won't comment, but so far doesn't appear to have any plans for 
emergency alerts on Apple TV or Homepod.

Microsoft Cortana is pretty much irrelevant now.

There were a few other intelligent assistants at CES 2019, but I don't 
know of others with significant marketshare.

Android and iOS on cell phones added emergency alerts only after laws and 
regulations required cellular carriers to support emergency alerts.

Yes, there are third-part Apps with emergency alerts. They typically have 
less than 15% subscription rates. And require the end-user to explicitly 
check/ask the smart device about the weather or news or alerts. Without 
support from the smart device ecosystem owners (Amazon, Apple, Google), 
even third-part apps can't proactively alert people.

Reporters (and legislators) shouldn't be asking Netflix and Hulu about 
emergency alerts.  They should be asking the smart device ecosystem 
controllers: Amazon, Apple and Google.