Strengthening self-preparedness or emphasizing uncertainty during emergency? A case study of the implementation of emergency alerts on mobile in Norway

While Norway is not an EU Member State, the government of Norway is adopting a public emergency warning system in compliance with the European Electronic Communications Code. In 2022, the government drafted new legislation and completed a consultation process on the introduction of a new mobile-based public warning service (mobilbasert befolkningsvarsling). Norway’s Data Protection Authority provided input to the process, recommending that the new public warning system should be subject to investigation and assessed for its data safety and privacy implications. In the spring of 2022, the Norwegian police, the National Communications Authority (Nkom) and the Directorate for Societal Security and Emergency Preparedeness (DSB) were commissioned by the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness to provide a Norwegian service for mobile-based public alerts, and in October 2022, DSB signed a contract with Everbridge, a company in the emergency management technology sector that maintains nation-wide public warning systems in over twenty countries. The Norwegian police will decide when to send out warnings in peace time, but in the event of war, the Civil Defense, which is currently responsible for the post-WWII sirens, will decide when to sound the alarm. How will the Norwegian public react to the new warning system, when it is launched and tested? This case study investigates the ongoing process of designing, negotiating and implementing the new Cell Broadcast (CB) public warning system in Norway.