CoronaNotify – Get Notified When the Coronavirus Is Near

mgiampapa 6 years ago |

I like giving these "services" a one off email address from my own catchall and then check in on it months later to see how they attempted to monetize the data. Would probably make an interesting time series info-graphic.

ultrarunner 6 years ago | |

I do that with marathon entries. The worst offender by far has been the Rock N Roll series, who sold my email (runrocksoldthisemail@example.com) to several races throughout California. I chuckle every time something occasionally comes in to that address. 9/10 would recommend.

duxup 6 years ago | |

Any past experiences you could share?

dessant 6 years ago |

The right way to get notified when SARS-CoV-2 is near you is to follow the news and official sources, and whomever put this service up should be ashamed of themselves.

asdfasgasdgasdg 6 years ago | |

Ashamed? Some people prefer push over pull. Following the news is unhealthy in its own way.

dessant 6 years ago | | |

Yes, ashamed. Prefer? This is not the time to have preferences, but regardless, there are official sources that send you notifications.

You will know when the virus is near you before the operator of this service has a chance to update their data. The service is useless and any minimal false sense of security it gives could harm people by making them a bit less likely to follow official information sources and to prepare in time.

asdfasgasdgasdg 6 years ago | | |

> there are official sources that send you notifications.

Feel free to link them. Brief googling didn't turn up any for me.

dessant 6 years ago | | |

It depends on the country, in the US you should subscribe to CDC alerts and follow the news.

https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/healthalerts/index.h...

In South Korea people get emergency alerts on their phones whenever they enter an area that is affected.

This strategy may be used by other countries too in the near future, so check if emergency alerts are configured on your phone.

asdfasgasdgasdg 6 years ago | | |

Which one of those will tell me when covid 19 is in my city and not bother me otherwise? Supposing I'm not willing to bet that my government will be operating with the efficiency of South Korea's, I mean.

King-Aaron 6 years ago |

Fear as a Service

numpad0 6 years ago | |

Morpheus: “Wha’tt if I said — we monetized it, successfully, Neo.”

ropiwqefjnpoa 6 years ago | |

Unfortunately so, but it does get clicks and eyeballs.

nikofeyn 6 years ago | |

aka "the media".

Brahma111 6 years ago |

This is one service where I am perfectly fine if I never receive any notification

stevewillows 6 years ago |

Cool idea. It's a shame it doesn't accept TLDs like .party, though.

devjam 6 years ago | |

Nor does it accept "+" characters in the email address localpart, as allowed in RFC822 (1982).

CameronNemo 6 years ago | | |

I recently learned that single words are considered valid email addresses... e.g. "foo" or "root".

Cyph0n 6 years ago | | |

Isn’t that how mail gets routed to local user mailboxes?

CameronNemo 6 years ago | | |

Yes, exactly. I just never expected an email parser to recognize those cases.

burnJS 6 years ago |

Its like nip alert, but somehow worse.

alexpetralia 6 years ago |

This is a fantastic example of "app marketing". Build a simple app that is genuinely useful, then include a small link to the app creator. It is a great, non-BS (cough cough content marketing/SEO) way to drive new traffic.

rnotaro 6 years ago | |

50% of the app creator menu's links land to a 404.:')