Don't be surprised if your phone starts ringing unexpectedly within the next three months.
France continues to deploy its FR-Alert system and must test it under fear for the first time in Paris.
Like that in force in the United States or other European countries, this device will instantly send an alert to the phones of all people located in a certain “danger zone” in order to inform them of behaviors to adopt to protect themselves.
Deployed nationally since 2022, these alerts “take the form of priority notifications which arrive at the same time on all mobile phones and are displayed on the phone screen, even if it is locked.
The message can be accompanied by an audible alert as well as a vibration to affirm its critical nature,” explains the Ministry of the Interior on its website.
Three tests in three districts of Paris
FR-Alert is intended to be triggered by decision of the territorially competent prefect, here the Paris police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, in the event of major danger, whether “natural, industrial, terrorist or health”.
“This tool complements existing alert systems at national and local level (sirens, dissemination of information in the media or on social networks, etc.),” specifies the Paris police headquarters in a press release.
Three tests to raise public awareness of this method of distribution are therefore planned in three different districts of Paris in the coming months.
The first will take place on Thursday February 15, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., in the 13th arrondissement;
the second will take place on Friday March 22, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., in the 15th arrondissement;
and the last will take place on Tuesday April 23, from noon to 1 p.m., in the 17th arrondissement.
“People in the testing area will receive a notification accompanied by a specific sound signal, even if the cell phone is in silent mode.
No prior installation is necessary,” specifies the police headquarters.
As this is an experiment, no reaction is expected from the population.
Several instructions nevertheless remain to be respected: do not contact the police, the emergency services, nor the telephone switchboards of the police headquarters or the City of Paris and do not relay false rumors or false information on the social networks.