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What A Cock-Up: Pixel Emergency SOS Accidentally Shares Someone’s Nudes
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A Reddit user accidentally sent a nude video to contacts after inadvertently setting off the Emergency SOS feature on their Pixel phone.
- Once activated, the feature is able to automatically send a video recording along with other details to emergency contacts.
- Fortunately, Google offers a few ways to prevent the same thing happening to you.
Google’s Pixel phones all come with an Emergency SOS feature, accessible via the Personal Safety app. This allows you to press the power button five times to call for help and more. Unfortunately, it sounds like this feature had embarrassing consequences for one bleary-eyed Pixel owner.
Redditor AssistancePretend668 revealed that they accidentally sent nudes to their 12 emergency contacts after unintentionally activating Emergency SOS while trying to shut down their morning alarm. The unfortunate user, who apparently slept in the buff, noted that the morning alarm turned into a “blaring siren sound” after the SOS feature was activated.
Have you ever accidentally activated the Emergency SOS feature?
0 votes
“I grab my phone and look at the screen (still half asleep). I see the notifications for ‘calling 911’ and stuff about sending location and whatever else to emergency contacts (sic),” the user explained.
“The phone starts ringing and texts start coming in. Friends are concerned…but not so much about my safety but rather that MY PIXEL SENT EVERYBODY PHOTO/VIDEO OF ME NAKED 😅😅,” the Redditor added. The user even shared a censored screenshot and clip in the thread.
How does Emergency SOS work?
For what it’s worth, Google’s Emergency SOS feature can automatically activate (as is the case here), but you can also enable a confirmation step to reduce false alarms. In fact, Google just brought this confirmation step to the Pixel Watch line last month. So you shouldn’t have to worry about accidental activations.
Nevertheless, Pixel phones can indeed record a video when the Emergency SOS feature is activated. This video can be up to 45 minutes long and is backed up to the cloud for up to seven days (or until the link receives 120 visits). The sharing link is then automatically sent to emergency contacts, which seems to be what happened with this incident. Your contacts can also download the video from the sharing link, which is useful in actual emergencies but not so handy if you just so happen to accidentally film your naked self.
Don’t want the video automatically sent to contacts? Users have 15 seconds after recording to cancel sharing. In addition to sharing a recorded video, the safety feature also calls emergency services and sends your real-time location to emergency contacts.
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