Does anyone know anything about phantomalert?

https://www.phantomalert.com/

It looks very good but the android app it points to doesn't exist
afaict.

On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 21:23:39 -0400, micky wrote:

Does anyone know anything about phantomalert?

https://www.phantomalert.com/

It looks very good but the android app it points to doesn't exist
afaict.

I went to the web site & pressed the Android button & it downloaded this:
o https://www.phantomalert.com/phantomalert-v5.4.0(81)-release.apk
Name: phantomalert-v5.4.0(81)-release.apk
Size: 10022943 bytes (9788 KiB)
SHA256: 6C63B07CE8A05B11B12A83CE2BFDA9C2F257F157B5B3B0E2D3 5F5AB3ED183FF9

I pressed the iOS button but I don't know how to download to a PC:
o https://apps.apple.com/us/app/phantomalert/id371975380

I called the number 800-725-8425 which asked who was calling and then said
"please hold while I locate your party" and then it rang a few times,
but nobody picked up (saying "1467 is full and cannot accept messages").
o https://www.phantomalert.com

Googling, it has been around for a while, if it's the same company, as in
2011 this was in the news:
o U.S. Senators Want to Ban PhantomALERT
https://www.hotbikeweb.com/us-senators-want-ban-phantomalert
"Four U.S. Senators are targeting applications, like ** Phantom Alert**,
which lets drivers know where DUI checkpoints, speed traps and red light
cameras are located."

Apparently they are in the red-light business, so to speak:
o PhantomAlert manufactures and distributes anti-red light camera,
speed camera, and speed trap protection solutions.
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/phantomalert-com

They sell their iOS/Android/Garmin subscription on Amazon, apparently:
o PhantomALERT Lifetime Download Subscription
(compatible with iPhone, Android, Garmin, TomTom & Magellan)
https://www.amazon.com/PhantomALERT-Lifetime-Download-Subscription-compatible/product-reviews/B00297J5C6

I'm not sure exactly what they're selling for covid though.

micky wrote:

hxxps://www.phantomalert.com/
It looks very good

The web site seems to have been very hastily convetred from one that
avoids speed cameras ...

titleHate Traffic Tickets? There is an app for that and it's 100%
Legal./title

meta name="description" content="Avoid Traffic Tickets Using Your GPS
or Smartphone. Get the APP that warns of speed traps, speed cameras, red
light cameras for your iPhone, Android, Garmin, Tomtom and Magellan GPS"/

meta name="keywords" content="traffic ticket, speed traps, speeding
ticket, speed cameras, red light cameras, camera ticket, DUI, police
checkpoints, app, apps, iPhone, Android, Garmin, Tomtom, magellan, GPS
or smartphone, radar , iPad, tablet, trapster, waze"/

In alt.home.repair, on Tue, 22 Sep 2020 04:35:50 -0000 (UTC), Arlen
Holder wrote:

On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 21:23:39 -0400, micky wrote:

Does anyone know anything about phantomalert?

https://www.phantomalert.com/

It looks very good but the android app it points to doesn't exist
afaict.

I went to the web site & pressed the Android button & it downloaded this:
o https://www.phantomalert.com/phantomalert-v5.4.0(81)-release.apk
Name: phantomalert-v5.4.0(81)-release.apk
Size: 10022943 bytes (9788 KiB)
SHA256: 6C63B07CE8A05B11B12A83CE2BFDA9C2F257F157B5B3B0E2D3 5F5AB3ED183FF9

Oh, yeah. I forgot that I did get box that would download that, and I
guess I could either do that from a PC and copy it to a phone, or do it
on the phone. I don't know what to do with an apk file but I could find
out. And I have another phone and -- I'm spoiled now -- it would be
almost automatically installed in the next phone. Plus, I was
suspicious because the app store doesn't have it.

I pressed the iOS button but I don't know how to download to a PC:
o https://apps.apple.com/us/app/phantomalert/id371975380

I called the number 800-725-8425 which asked who was calling and then said
"please hold while I locate your party" and then it rang a few times,
but nobody picked up (saying "1467 is full and cannot accept messages").
o https://www.phantomalert.com

LOL

Googling, it has been around for a while, if it's the same company, as in
2011 this was in the news:
o U.S. Senators Want to Ban PhantomALERT
https://www.hotbikeweb.com/us-senators-want-ban-phantomalert
"Four U.S. Senators are targeting applications, like ** Phantom Alert**,
which lets drivers know where DUI checkpoints, speed traps and red light
cameras are located."

I googled but didn't see that. It's hard to take a mere 2 senators
seriously these days. I don't think people should avoid DUI checkpints
but my plan was just to have another map. I had read that someone was
suing phantomalart for stealing their map. Phantom had put in trap
streets, streets that don't exist, to see if anyone stole their map.

Apparently they are in the red-light business, so to speak:
o PhantomAlert manufactures and distributes anti-red light camera,
speed camera, and speed trap protection solutions.
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/phantomalert-com

They sell their iOS/Android/Garmin subscription on Amazon, apparently:
o PhantomALERT Lifetime Download Subscription
(compatible with iPhone, Android, Garmin, TomTom & Magellan)
https://www.amazon.com/PhantomALERT-Lifetime-Download-Subscription-compatible/product-reviews/B00297J5C6

I'm not sure exactly what they're selling for covid though.

Everyone has a warning about that. If there could only be so much
cooperation about other things, like making enough masks.

On Tue, 22 Sep 2020 06:22:35 -0400, micky wrote:

Oh, yeah. I forgot that I did get box that would download that, and I
guess I could either do that from a PC and copy it to a phone, or do it
on the phone.

More often than not, I download APKs to Windows, where I have terabytes of
disk space & which is easier to organize, what with the mouse & keyboard.

Then I install the app on any number of Android devices I feel like.
o It just works.

I don't know what to do with an apk file but I could find
out. And I have another phone and -- I'm spoiled now -- it would be
almost automatically installed in the next phone.

All you do is slide the apk onto the Android phone (either over WiFi or
USB) and doubleclick them on the Android phone to install them.

There's never a need to log into Google Play, and pretty much any one APK
will work on almost every single Android phone on the planet.

Note: Even if you do it 100% from the phone, there's _still_ never a need
to log into Google Play, since Aurora is the Google Play shell + privacy,
nor is there ever a need to even have a "Google Account" set up on the
phone, since you have 100% functionality without a Google Account:
o Is there any free FUNCTIONALITY that you need to do on Android, that you can't do WITHOUT a Google Account?
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.mobile.android/xzaii4eUY_E

Note: That's decidedly unlike with iOS where the functionality drops to
nearly zero without an iCloud account, plus, it adds an Advertiser ID,
which Android doesn't have if you don't set up an account on the Android
phone... and note you can still use your gmail on Android - just don't set
it up in the OS itself).
o How many functionalities do you perform, every day, on Android, that are impossible on iOS [and vice versa]?
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.mobile.android/zW9ZfeMAkg4

Plus, I was suspicious because the app store doesn't have it.

The problem with Google & Apple app stores is they don't tell you why they
removed the apps (or the apps removed themselves, which is very common):
o https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phantomalert

An example of an app that Google likely removed unilaterally is the open
source NewPipe code, which is YouTube Red payware for free, on steroids
o https://newpipe.schabi.org/

As an example of an app the developers essentially removed themselves, take
the AdClear ad blocker, which according to the developers, breaks Google
rules so what they put on Google Play is a mere stub of the fully
functional app:
o https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seven.adclear.fsb
Where, on their web site, you can get the fully functional app instead:
o https://adclear.com/

An example of an app that is on Google Play, but only for Pixels, take
either the Google Gcam app or the Google Recorder & Transcriber app, both
of which are perhaps the best in their class, and both are widely ported to
almost all current Android phones (I have both, for example, as the default
app in their class on my $100 64GB/4GB 8-core Moto G(7) Android 10 device.
o Hint: Changing the camera app can remarkably improve your photo quality of results (but why?)
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.photo.digital/LtY49dG01mc

o Offline speech-to-text recorder/transcription unofficial Google Recorder APK port now available for many Android phones
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.mobile.android/_Amn35T16NA

I googled but didn't see that. It's hard to take a mere 2 senators
seriously these days.

Luckily, we live in the United States, not in some theocracy, where the
"puritanical" politicians can't as easily declare information as a vice.

As with phone call spoofers and radar detectors, most states recognize it's
just information, and to block this information is the first step toward
being in a world that resembles the Orwellian duplicity of the First
Testament (IMHO).

What I didn't bother to assess was what the tool does for Covid, as a quick
skim ascertained the PhantomAlert app was likely a vending shell which
likely required a subscription for full functionality.

I don't think people should avoid DUI checkpints
but my plan was just to have another map. I had read that someone was
suing phantomalart for stealing their map. Phantom had put in trap
streets, streets that don't exist, to see if anyone stole their map.

Yeah, I saw all those when I ran a search and decided not to post them
since it was ancillary to the point of figuring out what PhantomAlert was.
o Rival accuses Google's Waze of stealing traffic data
https://www.cnet.com/news/lawsuit-claims-waze-stole-traffic-information-from-competitor-before-its-sale-to-google/
"A competitor to Waze claims in a lawsuit the driving directions app
stole its data, unjustly beefing up its product before selling
to Google."

Basically PhantomAlert alleged that Waze stole their maps before Google
bought them.
o PhantomAlert sues Google subsidiary Waze over allegations the map and
traffic data company stole some of its database
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/03/google-sued-paper-towns-rip-off-claim-phantomalert-waze
"The complaint states: Among other methods, PhantomAlert determined that
Waze had copied its Points of Interest database by observing the
presence of fictitious Points of Interest in the Waze application,
which PhantomAlert had seeded into its own database for the purpose
of detecting copying."

I'm not sure exactly what they're selling for covid though.

Everyone has a warning about that. If there could only be so much
cooperation about other things, like making enough masks.

Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not big on surveillance apps,
particularly covid-surveillance apps, for a variety of reasons, one of
which is that they can't possibly work, for a long list of reasons:
o A systematic review to inform the control of COVID-19
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30184-9/fulltext
"Evidence for the use of automated or partly automated
contact-tracing tools to contain severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2 is scarce."

The reasons they can't possibly work are many, but the hoi polloi are
desperate, out of sheer fear (there are no atheists in a foxhole); but they
can't work, even with those who are scared out of their wits because:
a. They won't attain necessary uptake in the western world to be effective
b. They tell you nothing about contact with asymptomatics
c. They tell you nothing about contact with people spewing aerosols
d. They tell you nothing about contact with people contaminating surfaces
e. They no doubt impinge on your privacy (phones can/will be hacked)
And, in the end, they clearly (IMHO) do far more harm for utterly no good.

Note that asymptomatic-based infection is apparently astoundingly huge
where you can only ignore them if you are playing political games:
o Nearly Half of Coronavirus Spread May Be Traced to People Without Any Symptoms
https://time.com/5848949/covid-19-asymptomatic-spread/
"One of the more insidious features of the new coronavirus
behind COVID-19 is its ability to settle into unsuspecting hosts
*who _never_ show signs of being sick* but are able to spread
the virus to others."

Even the vaccine, while worthy of effort, at the moment, essentially, is
yet another pipe dream by those who are driven mad by their fears
who errantly believe a vaccine can possibly achieve "herd immunity":
o Seasonal coronavirus protective immunity is short-lasting
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1083-1
"Caution should be taken when relying on policies that require
long-term immunity, such as vaccination or natural infection
to reach herd immunity."
--
Note that last cite was from last week, which is a 35-year study of serum
samples taken frequently, where the number of coronavirus infections was 10
times the number of people studied, where any one individual was definitely
reinfected from 3 to 17 times, sometimes in 6 months and frequently in a
year.

On Tue, 22 Sep 2020 07:13:51 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

The web site seems to have been very hastily convetred from one that
avoids speed cameras ...

Hi Andy Burns,

Your assessment of the PhantomAlert agrees with mine, where I appreciate
that you delved deeper into the HTML code to base your assessments on facts
(as I had only superficially skimmed the site & didn't like the looks of it
at all).

I had assessed, from my quick tests on my PC only (see sig) that
PhantomAlert is "selling" something related to covid... but what?

We won't get a good answer from them, so I simply ask anyone who knows:
o What exactly is Phantom ALERT selling for the purpose of covid?
--
On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 21:23:39 -0400, micky wrote:

Does anyone know anything about phantomalert?

https://www.phantomalert.com/

It looks very good but the android app it points to doesn't exist
afaict.

I went to the web site & pressed the Android button & it downloaded this:
o https://www.phantomalert.com/phantomalert-v5.4.0(81)-release.apk
Name: phantomalert-v5.4.0(81)-release.apk
Size: 10022943 bytes (9788 KiB)
SHA256: 6C63B07CE8A05B11B12A83CE2BFDA9C2F257F157B5B3B0E2D3 5F5AB3ED183FF9

I pressed the iOS button but I don't know how to download to a PC:
o https://apps.apple.com/us/app/phantomalert/id371975380

I called the number 800-725-8425 which asked who was calling and then said
"please hold while I locate your party" and then it rang a few times,
but nobody picked up (saying "1467 is full and cannot accept messages").
o https://www.phantomalert.com

Googling, it has been around for a while, if it's the same company, as in
2011 this was in the news:
o U.S. Senators Want to Ban PhantomALERT
https://www.hotbikeweb.com/us-senators-want-ban-phantomalert
"Four U.S. Senators are targeting applications, like ** Phantom Alert**,
which lets drivers know where DUI checkpoints, speed traps and red light
cameras are located."

Apparently they are in the red-light business, so to speak:
o PhantomAlert manufactures and distributes anti-red light camera,
speed camera, and speed trap protection solutions.
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/phantomalert-com

They sell their iOS/Android/Garmin subscription on Amazon, apparently:
o PhantomALERT Lifetime Download Subscription
(compatible with iPhone, Android, Garmin, TomTom & Magellan)
https://www.amazon.com/PhantomALERT-Lifetime-Download-Subscription-compatible/product-reviews/B00297J5C6

I'm not sure exactly what they're selling for covid though.