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Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

arstechnica.com

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Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#91

Post by com2kid »

krzyk wrote: post #35
sowbug wrote: post #11

Possibly related: I've noticed that when I'm in humid weather and I stick my phone into a damp pocket, it basically monkey-tests until I pull it back out again. Flashlight might be on, string of gibberish might be queued up on a text message, etc. I'm normally really good about locking the screen when I'm done, but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly.

I have the same thing, I tried to disable all functions of my Pixel 4 that would do that. It amazes me that the simplest thing is not done here: if proximity sensor senses your screen is covered - do not enable the screen ever. When I'm jogging my phone sometimes sends texts, runs apps etc, same when I have phone in my pocket. Why don't they use proximity sensor?

> It amazes me that the simplest thing is not done here: if proximity sensor senses your screen is covered - do not enable the screen ever.

This works well, until the prox sensor stops working (e.g. a piece of dust lands on it) and you can no longer get the phone screen to turn on.

It cuts both ways. :(

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#92

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

Phones have and send IMEIs. These include a TAC [1] mapping directly to a phone model. The obvious solution would be to track false (accidental/misdial) calls, and if a phone model exceeds some metric (e.g. 5x the median), start fining/charging the manufacturer.

This would quickly cut down on these issues and if not, could at least provide funding to staff it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Allocation_Code

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#93

Post by corywatilo »

bombcar wrote: post #2

I had to disable the shortcuts on my iPhone because the toddler had discovered hold to dial 911 and talk to the nice lady. Luckily I caught it before it became like the other case I heard of, where a kid learned he could get a fire truck to visit anytime he was bored and had a phone.

Same has happened here with our 2-year old, except we didn't get to it in time and have had the fire department show up on more than one occasion before we figured out what was happening.

There were also a handful of times we could hear a voice coming through the wife's phone where we narrowly avoided a few more visits.

This was all before we discovered how she actually calling 911. It's shocking to me Google didn't make more of a deal about this new "feature" when they rolled it out.

This definitely should have been opt-IN, not opt-out. Sure smells like a classic example of tech PMs making idealistic decisions that affect people in the real world without thinking through all of the consequences.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#94

Post by Stratoscope »

throwaway09223 wrote: post #64
notmyuserlogin wrote: post #42

It isn't just a problem with Android. I volunteer for a small fire department. We respond to about 500 calls a year. Since January I can think of three times the automatic crash detection on iOS devices has called us out by mistake. 1) A person left their phone on their car and it fell off. Being a small town one of the volunteers was able to find the owner and bring them the phone. 2) A gps location in the middle of…

For everyone blaming modern tech: The only time police have ever come to my house from a 911 call was back in the 90s. Some combination of a noisy phone line and a broken 900MHz cordless phone managed to call 911 and they followed up. They said not to worry, it happens all the time and was a notable portion of their calls. These types of false calls have been happening for a long, long time. We should get more data a…

Back in 1996, I was living in Almaden Valley (South San Jose) and we had underground utilities. We also lived on top of an underground stream.

After a rainstorm, water got in and intermittently shorted out the phone line. It was clicking like crazy!

I was on my cool new Motorola StarTAC talking with Pacific Bell to report the problem. Then I heard a loud knock on the door: "San Jose Police. Open up!"

I asked the officers what the problem was and they said "We got a 911 call with no one on the line. We tried to call you back, but no one answered. So we had to come out and investigate."

I invited them in and said, "I think I know what happened." They followed me over to the landline speakerphone in the kitchen and listened to the clicking.

Then I explained, "You remember the old rotary dial phones? They worked by making and breaking the circuit, just like this clicking. Even if we all have touch-tone phones these days, the phone lines are still compatible with the rotary dial. So somewhere in the midst of all this clicking, there were nine fast clicks in a row, and then one click, and one more. And that dialed 911. Sorry about that!"

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#95

Post by hypercube33 »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #92

Phones have and send IMEIs. These include a TAC [1] mapping directly to a phone model. The obvious solution would be to track false (accidental/misdial) calls, and if a phone model exceeds some metric (e.g. 5x the median), start fining/charging the manufacturer. This would quickly cut down on these issues and if not, could at least provide funding to staff it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Allocation_Code

I mean aren't there a majority who have Samsung and Apple phones so those would be biased to be the top two no matter what?

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#96

Post by [deleted] »

danpalmer wrote: post #29
xethos wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From TFA: > The funny thing is, Android 12 — and this easy emergency call feature — came out a year and a half ago. [...] the feature is only now hitting enough people to become a national problem. Google's Pixel devices get new Android updates immediately, but everyone else can take months or years to get new versions of Android [...]. When this landed on Pixel devices in 2021, it was immediately flagged as a proble…

I did read this but it doesn't feel convincing. People complain on Reddit about anything, and have complained about triggering this on iOS, and yet we don't get ArsTechnica (or the BBC, or other major news organisations) covering it as a widespread problem. There are plenty of Pixels, I'd expect enough to cause coverage if this was a substantial issue. Increasing the accessibility of emergency calls is always going t…

[deleted]

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#97

Post by lmm »

hypercube33 wrote: post #95
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #92

Phones have and send IMEIs. These include a TAC [1] mapping directly to a phone model. The obvious solution would be to track false (accidental/misdial) calls, and if a phone model exceeds some metric (e.g. 5x the median), start fining/charging the manufacturer. This would quickly cut down on these issues and if not, could at least provide funding to staff it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Allocation_Code

I mean aren't there a majority who have Samsung and Apple phones so those would be biased to be the top two no matter what?

Presumably you'd track the rate of misdialed calls compared to real emergency calls, not the absolute number.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#98

Post by hypercube33 »

danpalmer wrote: post #12

iPhones have exactly the same feature, activated in almost the same way, except that it requires one fewer interactions with the device to trigger, and yet, there's no reporting about this happening too much with iPhones, nor was there any when the feature came out a few years ago. Additionally, this doesn't seem to have been a problem when it rolled out on Pixel devices a year and a half ago, Pixels are certainly co…

Personally from my Samsung phone - it had enabled gestures by default. This allowed you to tap the screen a few times and it would present you with the lock screen which has the emergency call button. From personal experience - the phone will wake up and go into this menu if you sweat and have the phone in your pocket.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#99

Post by c0balt »

hypercube33 wrote: post #95
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #92

Phones have and send IMEIs. These include a TAC [1] mapping directly to a phone model. The obvious solution would be to track false (accidental/misdial) calls, and if a phone model exceeds some metric (e.g. 5x the median), start fining/charging the manufacturer. This would quickly cut down on these issues and if not, could at least provide funding to staff it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Allocation_Code

I mean aren't there a majority who have Samsung and Apple phones so those would be biased to be the top two no matter what?

Well, if the majority of accidental calls originate from the top n (n>0) manufactures it would be the most effective to address them. That's kinda how regulation works in many cases, see, e.g., privacy and safety enforcement in general.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#100

Post by DanHulton »

tazjin wrote: post #87
methodical wrote: post #75

This is anecdotal but the same exact thing (albeit with an Apple Watch vs. Android) happened to me a few days ago- I had forgotten to turn on the watch's water mode before going in the water. After about like 5 minutes in the pool it started calling 911 for a medical emergency. My watch ended up calling 911 about 3 times (it probably tried to call them about 5 more times but I ended up taking it off in time to preven…

I have a nice, handmade mechanical watch and it's never tried to spam-call any emergency services. Also shows the time fairly reliably.

These are not the same category of product in the same way that a smartphone and a rotary phone are not the same category of product, despite have words in their name in common.
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