It’s an alert that surprised more than one Parisian on Monday evening. Around 8 p.m., a million people received a notification on their smartphone, accompanied by a shrill noise, indicating an “extremely serious alert”. But the urgency was not: it was in reality a simple invitation to go to the new official Games Pass platform in order to obtain a QR code to circulate freely in Paris during the ceremony opening of the Olympic Games.
Behind this initiative is the FR-Alert system, deployed since 2022. But how does it work? What personal data is collected? Can we turn off these notifications? Le Figaro takes stock.
This population alert system “allows notifications to be sent to the mobile phones of people present in an area facing danger”, details the website of the Ministry of the Interior. Several pieces of information can be shared, in particular on the nature of the risk, the authority issuing the alert, the location of the danger or even the attitude to adopt.
If certain tests are still being carried out in certain regions, FR-Alert has been operational in France and overseas since June 2022. “The end of the alert will also be subject to the sending of a notification,” specifies the ministry’s dedicated page.
Notifications from this alert system concern multiple events, starting with natural ones, such as floods, storms, cyclones, fires, tsunamis and even volcanic eruptions. Biological, chemical, technological and industrial incidents are also concerned. Added to this are health events such as epidemics, pandemics or gastro-food incidents. Terrorist attacks and “serious” obstacles to public security are also among the alerts that can be sent to smartphones.
The Olympic Games therefore appear like a UFO in this list, the use of this tool for the sporting event causing controversy. Asked about this, the Interior Ministry replied that it was “an information message”. “It is an alert sent to the security perimeters and their surroundings to widely inform of the opening of the platform,” the ministry explained on Monday. “This is not a test. This is information,” continued Place Beauvau, adding: “An exceptional event, an exceptional device.”
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FR-Alert combines two technologies, starting with cellular broadcast. Concretely, this is the “broadcast of a notification which is displayed on the phone screen in a few seconds and which may be accompanied by an intrusive sound”. To send this information quickly, FR-Alert uses radio waves broadcast via telecommunications antennas, which it transmits on a dedicated channel. Added to this is the technology of geolocated SMS which “will arrive later”, specifies the ministry.
Thanks to cellular broadcast technology, foreign tourists can also receive notifications on their mobile phones, provided they have a mobile plan. “Notifications can be disseminated in several languages, particularly when they concern areas known for their tourist attendance,” underlines the Ministry of the Interior. In addition, the use of these two technologies makes it possible to combine them, according to the authorities: cellular broadcasting is more immediate and works on 4G, while that by geolocated SMS works on 2G, 3G and 4G, but it “can take more time”.
The Ministry of the Interior does not have access to mobile telephone numbers or their geolocation since this technology relies on sending the alert via the relay antennas of telephone operators. It is therefore the latter who “hold an approximate location of the phones to be able to send calls, SMS and data streams” to the phones. The ministry points out, however, that these operators are in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation, “which protects and regulates access to personal data, particularly location data”.
To receive alerts, no action is required, neither registration nor application download. And “it doesn’t matter where you are or what cell phone you use,” says the Interior Ministry website. Notifications appear even if the phone is locked, but they don’t appear on phones that are turned off or in “airplane mode.”
Four alert levels can be sent, starting with 1, the maximum level. Users cannot deactivate the tool for this level, all mobiles detected by the relay antennas in a selected area thus display the message. Levels 2 (in which the alert of Monday May 13 was classified), 3 and 4 can be deactivated by users. For iOS systems used by iPhones, simply go to the settings and the “Notifications” menu and deactivate the alerts. On Android, same principle, by going to the settings, the “Security and emergencies” menu then “Crisis alerts”.
In the European Union, most Member States have chosen one of the two solutions for disseminating alerts via mobile telephony. Spain, Italy, Denmark and Greece use cellular broadcasting, while Ireland, Poland and Sweden use geolocated SMS. Germany and Finland have mobile applications that their citizens must download.
