Government Might Take Control of Missouri Smartphones in 2024?

You're obviously reading this right now and you're probably doing it on a smartphone in Missouri that you think is yours. I say "think" because there are reports that the government may very well try to take control of your Missouri smartphone in 2024, but they're not sure. That's reassuring.

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There's no real reason for alarm (or so we're told) when the federal government decides to send out what they call an emergency alert system test. It's happened before, most recently being last October of 2023.

I saw an interesting follow-up regarding that test which was shared by Penn Live. They reportedly talked to FEMA about the results of that test and whether they plan to do it again in 2024? The response was...curious. The feds say they were "analyzing results" and "determining whether the next national public alert and warning system will be in 2024 or 2025". So you're saying there's a chance?

What is the problem with a national cell phone test anyway?

Privacy advocates in Missouri have legitimate concerns about the government tracking cell phones while the feds say it's just to make sure they can reach as many people as possible in an emergency. There are 5 categories of tests they say can be sent to phones including the following:

• National Alerts
• Imminent Threat Alerts
• Public Safety Alerts
• Amber Alerts
• Opt-in Text Messages from the state of Missouri

What's concerning is a new story from Politico that features a journalist who was tipped off about how the government is using your data without your knowledge for "law enforcement purposes".  How come this reminds me of the Tom Cruise movie "Minority Report"?

Freedom in the 50 States has regularly ranked Missouri as one of the top 10 "freest states in America". The Show Me State is also considered one of the best "off-the-grid" states. This begs the question of exactly how free are we anyway if the government is constantly testing our devices and using our data?