Eric the Red

Verizon Wireless: Directing Attackers to their Victims Since 2007

Eric | November 22, 2007

In an act of EXTREME stupidity, Verizon Wireless has decided that its cell phones should sound an alarm if the user dials 911. What Verizon has utterly failed to understand here is that when people dial 911, their lives are in danger because they have walked into a break-in in their home, or someone breaks in while they are at home and they are forced to hide or die.

So why does Verizon think its appropriate to alert attackers to the locations of their victims? Will Verizon be sorry if this utterly idiotic “feature” results in someone being beaten, kidnapped or killed, or will they just say “whoops, my bad”? I mean, how the hell can they call something this stupid a feature?? And apparently Sprint is susceptible as well.

The article I cite here quotes a Verizon spokesman who claims:

The tone our customer experienced is our interpretation of Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act calling for a provider of telecommunications service to offer service that is accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities. The tone, indicating that 911 has been dialed, is one of several features designed to make wireless service is accessible and easy to use, especially for those with disabilities. Other features include a voice command key where customers can use their voice to dial by name or number; a voice echo feature so that a person who can’t see can hear the number or letter if sending a text; read back text messages and speech output of signal strength, battery strength, missed calls, voicemail, roaming, time and date.

I assume this spokesman is talking about the blind. So lets take a look at this statistically.

Every year, over 500,000 women are stalked by a partner/former husband/etc.

1200 women were killed in 2000 by husbands/partners/etc

As many as 3 million women are victims of physical violence by an intimate partner, such as a husband or boyfriend.

Compare this to 1.1 million people in the United States who are legally blind. So domestic violence affects three times as many people as blindness. This means 3 times as many people are likely to be in a situation where contacting law enforcement while remaining hidden could save their lives.

Maybe the tone is so you have something soothing or upbeat to listen to while your killer hacks you to death. Ugh…..