Tell HN: Your Android carrier can remotely turn settings on

My wife is currently in Germany and had cell broadcast warnings disabled on her Android 11 device. Apparently, the local carrier she uses turns them back on remotely. She gets notified of this. "Settings changed by carrier."

(1) Were you aware that carriers can remotely override your settings like this? (2) Any strategies to keep something like this from happening besides rooting the device? (3) How do you feel about this type of remote control by a third party?

I must say I strongly dislike losing control over my own device. It feels dystopian to me.

I also couldn't find any mention of this particular power of carriers apart from one lonely Reddit post about someone trying to turn off Amber alerts [1].

---------------- EDIT: Additional info for clarity:

The settings I am referring to are under "Apps & notifications"/"Wireless emergency alerts". They are about controlling whether to and which alerts one wants to receive on their phone.

It's an unlocked Android One device. The carrier seems to be able to remotely change these settings (see the referenced Reddit post as well), which I would never expect. It seems to be because of the SIM the phone uses and the network it connects to. No user-controlled software change like updates.

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[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/zebvs4/settings_changed_by_carrier/

It's a carrier side setting...lol.

How do you manage w/o a phone?

Some of our bank accounts require using an Android (or iPhone) app, for example. Messengers like Signal don't work w/o a smartphone. COVID-related apps for traveling. I could continue.

Genuinely curious.

1) yes, but only got the warning once. 2) I think you need to root and disable OTA updates, but never tried. 3) Hate it, but I think it's a drop in an ocean of control, and probably way more harmless than depending on Google for everything (at least in my case). Not an Apple user, but apparently this is also a thing on Apple devices: https://www.vox.com/2015/2/12/11558938/what-is-this-carrier-...

(1) I wasn't aware of it, but I am not surprised that something like this was written into the standard (presumably. I doubt carriers rolled their own thing)

(2) All the ways I can think off are significantly harder than rooting, so essentially no.

(3) I don't really mind that much, I have Google services running on my phone and I am certain those can do far more than my carrier could ever dream off. I have begrudgingly accepted those, so it would be a bit hypocritical to complain about my carrier turning cell broadcast back on. Especially since "turning cell broadcast back on" is a use case that I can see the argument behind.

It you care about this then I suggest you look up the relevant standard documents, probably you will find this behavior documented there.