Then again, many bad things happen at a constant rate somewhere within a 400 mile circle. If all of those bad things generated an alert to all people within tha

Then again, many bad things happen at a constant rate somewhere within a 400 mile circle. If all of those bad things generated an alert to all people within that circle, and then consider that every square inch is part of infinite other overlapping such circles... Evereyone but a few researchers in Antarctica would have useless phones that don't do anything but scream these alerts at all times. The idea doesn't scale unless the events are actually quite selective, and a missing person that isn't even necessarily missing yet probably shouldn't qualify. Even if you are sympathetic and care about that kid, it doesn't matter because it doesn't work anyway. Everyone just ignores the alert. It's just not a reasonable balance between how much some bad thing matters and how many people's attention are commandeered for it. Every single death even from peaceful old age after a rich full life is a tragedy, but the rest of the world can not care about it. Literally can not, because it doesn't scale. Those tragedies are happening at a constant rate of many new ones every second of every day at all times. Instead there are a much smaller set of people who care about or who's job is to care about each one, and that set is smaller than "everyone in a 400 mile circle". The fact that a person can drive 200 miles in any direction in a few hours doesn't change that. It's probably a good thing for the system to exist, but if it's used the wrong way, it's entire utility and reason for existing is sabotaged and nullified. However the real point not about the alert system but about a carrier's ability to control your device more than yourself, even if you own your device outright, that I do not say is a good thing that it exists. I accept that there's not much to do about it. I do have a rooted phone running LineageOS, which gives me a bit more control, but I don't kid myself that that really means much. But I don't think it's good or right.