Collecting End Users Contact Details for Mass Notification in Disaster SituationsCategory: Communication
Article posted by: Alex Alexandrino
At present, when deploying AlarmTILT to alert the citizens, our concept is based on getting recipients' data by voluntary subscription to the free service (sponsored by the local authorities). We sense that importing large databases of fixed phone numbers would be too intrusive, also we are bound to tight data protection laws. How do people react, that received an alert, without ever having subscribed or accepted to be notified?
At this question, most of my fellow colleagues answered most people don't object to getting a phone call from public safety with messages of import. The messages don't necessarily have to be an "emergency", but if they are important (i.e. a local road will be closed), citizens don't generally object. Yes, there are exceptions, but they don't seem to be widespread. And, growing numbers of citizens are expecting this type of service from government...without having to ask for it.
Major concern, however, comes from the fact that more and more citizens do not own a landline at all, hence the difficulty in reaching them directly via a phone call.
This is why we decided to go the "voluntary subscription" way. Best way to collect the right info around a "person", because at the end of the day, you do not want to call a particular "phone number", but to reach a physical person by any means (think person-centric, not device-centric), ideally even knowing where he/she is located.
In Europe, relunctance in giving personal contact details is very high. Using existing phone databases in France for instance will give you 80% of landline numbers, but only 2% of mobile (cellular) numbers (and no email addresses !).
The future of citizen alert system involving email/SMS/voice/RSS/Instant Messaging/Fax will go via a viral community system (Facebook/Linkedin/Plaxo) style, where citizens will
a) register for free to a multi media alert management system
b) invite friends and family to join in
This system will need to be proactive, i.e. it will "remind" every subscribed citzen once a year (or once a month, depending on acceptance) to update own data (by email/sms/website/Paper Form, etc).
Massive import of old databases are out in my opinion.
Of course, if the legal background is set, the best partners for collecting/identifying/locating people in danger are the telecom operators, as they constantly know what devices are actively connected to their network !
Further information can be found on our dedicated citizen alert page.
Posted By: Alex Alexandrino
Web: http://www.alarmtilt.com
Contact: e-mail
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