Aspire app. It’s stalkerware from dr Phil’s wife

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13 Mar 2021, 2:07 pm

Imagine an app meant to be a covert help button for those at risk of domestic abuse that is not covert at all, and has a history of freezing up.

By not covert I mean in many ways

This flew under the radar for years, till security researchers for a VPN site found some unprotected recordings of help calls .

This resulted in two articles that I think are just scratching the surface of how bad this thing stinks.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/25/aspire-app-dr-phil/

https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/report-a ... ne-24-2020

I’m curious if there would be a paper trail, not literal, but who wrote this crap app and how crappy is it?

I don’t know app code but am wanting to learn a bit

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13 Mar 2021, 3:48 pm

That is a very severe find by the looks of things.

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The_Znof
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21 May 2021, 11:48 pm

Google play gives this app 3.5 and 3.4 average out of 210 reviews.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... n_CA&gl=US

This is the graph they give to show how the reviewers rated the app.

I counted them manual and got this

five star 39

Four Star 7

three star 8

two star 12

one star 59

not even close huh?

around the time I made this thread I posted a comment on the techcrunch article, and it was similar to this post.

I checked it a week or two after posting to see if anyone replied. no one did, but my post was still there.

Now its gone though...

https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/25/aspire-app-dr-phil/

The_Znof
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10 Feb 2022, 8:08 pm

Turns out Dr Phil did not delete my comment, techcrunch no longer does comments and deleted them all.

Are there any Americans or anyone with a VPN who can dl a copy and answer a couple questions for me?

I currently dont have a phone.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... n_CA&gl=US

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/aspire-ne ... 1313564226

The_Znof
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16 Mar 2022, 5:08 pm

So I have this thread which presets findings vpn mentor and techcrunch posted articles about regarding Dr Phils anti domestic violence app being a total POS, and cant access it through this public library terminal.

It showed in the results here and in google, but both places send me to other threads.

I posted screens of what is happening in the thread below.

viewtopic.php?t=397304

Is Dr Phil gaslighting me? :jester: Can anyone do these search terms and see if they get false links?

stalkerware - here in wrong planet search.

stalkerware from dr phils wife - in google.

anyway the reviews speak for themselves

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... views=true

Original critical articles:

Quote:

Company Profile
The Aspire News App was built by When Georgia Smiled, a non-profit founded by American TV personalities Robin McGraw and her husband “Dr. Phil” McGraw.

When Georgia Smiled was founded to help “advance organizations and programs that serve victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse and individuals facing crisis to live healthy, safe and joy-filled lives.”

Aspire News App is just one part of that broader mission. Built to appear as a news and entertainment app, Aspire News App is meant to keep domestic victims safe, educate them on abusive relationships and the support available for victims, and help them send emergency distress messages to trusted contacts.

Trusted contacts added within the app can be alerted with or without the user's location information.

Based on user reviews, both the iOS and Android versions of the Aspire News App have major technical issues that make it difficult to use. Users have also highlighted design flaws and features of the app that actually endanger people in abusive relationships.

https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/report-a ... pp-breach/

https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/25/aspire-app-dr-phil/

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16 Mar 2022, 5:52 pm

Some odd google behaviour going on there that's for certain. I think the problem is google has cached the link with "&view=next" appended to it. That's like going to your thread and clicking next topic, or rather doing so when google cached the page. How "next topic" works is a bit of a mystery too. Looks like it just moves up and down the forum, so it can send you to an ancient thread, if it has been bumped recently.

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The_Znof
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16 Mar 2022, 6:18 pm

thanks for that Mikah

The_Znof
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17 Mar 2022, 3:43 pm

an older critique by snopes [2015]

Quote:

Workers who regularly respond to domestic abuse emergencies expressed concern to us in e-mails about whether the app worked as advertised (if it even worked at all), and whether potentially dangerous information was being circulated about the app’s abilities to help domestic abuse victims:

Please check into Mrs McGraw’s (Dr Phil’s wife) phone app called Aspire News. Apparently it is for domestic violence victims to press a button and authorities will be alerted as to your location and what is going on. I’m a 911 Dispatcher in Virginia and can speak for my agency and surrounding agencies that this is false and not how it is being sent around.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2015/06/29/aspire-news-app/

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18 Mar 2022, 6:00 pm

coincidence or not, to mention it could be a distraction from more solid points.

google sucks lol wtf

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18 Mar 2022, 6:38 pm

The_Znof wrote:

Google play gives this app 3.5 and 3.4 average out of 210 reviews.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... n_CA&gl=US

This is the graph they give to show how the reviewers rated the app.

I counted them manual and got this

five star 39

Four Star 7

three star 8

two star 12

one star 59

not even close huh?

12 new reviews since I started this thread, mostly spam/shill five star no comment ones.

210 + 12 = 239 in Google shills Dr Phil world

[I dont think the totals added up last time either]

Is the review is being openly hacked to give the false 3.6 average, or is there a rogue script or something? Im guessing its openly manipulated.

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19 Mar 2022, 3:43 pm

Anyone who has watched Dr Phil critically will have noticed a pattern of self parody, with one of the more blatant examples being what he said on Scary Movie. "Im not even a real Psychologist"

He often uses this self parody as a frame up on his guests, like when he 'exposed' Kaden Mahaffa

Phil Questioned Guest's Claim She Was a Therapist ... She Ended Up Being Committed

Quote:

A former guest on Dr. Phil's talk show claims her mental illness became the subject of scorn and ridicule, causing her to have a breakdown -- but sources on the show tell us she didn't present herself as mentally ill, but falsely claimed to be the therapist of another guest.

https://www.tmz.com/2019/02/07/dr-phil- ... l-illness/

It is reasonable to suggest she may have known dr phil was winging it a bit himself re credentials, and this made it that much harder to bear.

Also Dr Phil at other times is not so tough on psychic guests,. Perhaps Kaden saw one of these before sharing her claims with the show?

Back on Point - I did see somebody get called out for critiquing the app, and the claim was critics of the app were commiting the same falacy Dr Phil does when he advertises the app on his show, destroying the 'covert' nature of the app and potentially tipping abusers to look for it on their partners phones.

This could be applied to me in my little corner [here], but im aware of further complaints that this app is a buggy on multiple levels POS that wouldnt work in many or even most cases even if it were covert. The snopes article fleshes this out well, showing a level of issues beyond the s**t coding.

Quote:

The Aspire News app’s main functions are not to make contact with 911 dispatchers during an incident of domestic violence. Although the app allows users to covertly investigate local shelter options and read about domestic abuse (without generating a search history immediately visible to an abuser), it is not primarily set up to efficiently and surreptitiously contact 911 dispatchers or summon other emergency services. And given the disparate manner in which dispatchers in various jurisdictions process and receive calls, the app also may not work in the same fashion from place to place and thus may not be a reliable tool to use during an incident of violence in the home.

While the Aspire News app enables users to locate resources available to them and send secret texts, doing so may not be an abuse victim’s best bet should he or she have access to a phone and a few fleeting moments of privacy. Rather than loading an app and clicking through multiple screens to locate a stealth texting function, one might find it faster and safer to text a few quick words to a trusted contact through the phone’s standard SMS interface. Similarly, the app’s ability to “record and transmit” audio or video of abuse presents a potentially risky distraction: if an incident of abuse is severe enough to warrant the capturing of an actionable recording, the victim might be better served by fleeing to safety first and testifying later, rather than sticking around to create a recording which may serve little beneficial purpose later on.

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16 Jun 2022, 11:58 am

May seem strange at first to post in this thread, but it related to both dr phil and corrupt star average scripts..

TRIGGER WARNING - sex abuse by psychiatrists goes mostly unpunished/unnoticed..

security footage of a health canada approved study shows this psychiatrist assisting her psychologist husband in sexually violating a trauma victim who has been everything from homeless to a world record holder in inline roller speed skating. Couple get slaps on wrists for sexually traumatizing a sexual assault victim on tape in a trauma study..

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british- ... -1.6400256

"Professor" Dryer has dr phil like luck to get free stars from a script, I took a screen, still need to do page 2..

https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/ ... r-BC.html/

and her Husband uses being unlicensed to his advantage, how bout dat?

from CBC article in first link -----

Quote:

Buisson [abused study patient] has submitted the videos of her sessions to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., where she has had an active complaint against Dryer for more than four years. A college spokesperson said she could not comment on that investigation.

Yensen is not a licensed psychologist in B.C., and because the province does not regulate therapists and counsellors, there is no official body that can investigate his actions or discipline him if deemed necessary.

The_Znof wrote:

Google play gives this app 3.5 and 3.4 average out of 210 reviews.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... n_CA&gl=US

This is the graph they give to show how the reviewers rated the app.

I counted them manual and got this

five star 39

Four Star 7

three star 8

two star 12

one star 59

not even close huh?

https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/25/aspire-app-dr-phil/

The_Znof
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11 Nov 2022, 1:25 pm

The_Znof wrote:

Google play gives this app 3.5 and 3.4 average out of 210 reviews.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... n_CA&gl=US

This is the graph they give to show how the reviewers rated the app.

I counted them manual and got this

five star 39

Four Star 7

three star 8

two star 12

one star 59

not even close huh?

Nearly two years ago it gave a total of 210 reviews when a manual count gave 125, and it screwed the star rating by at least a full point in Robin Mc Graw's favor, it was clearly below the 2.5 average.

Now its claiming 250 total and I count 152. I suspect some older reviews have been removed.

Five Star: 54

Four Star: 11

Three Star: 10

Two Star: 13

One Star: 66

Its still 'lying' on the average, but not by as much as last time..

ps - I lost/gained ~3 to 5 numbers somewhere, nowhere near enough to excuse google/dr phil.

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11 Nov 2022, 1:40 pm

The_Znof wrote:

Quote:

TRIGGER WARNING - sex abuse by psychiatrists goes mostly unpunished/unnoticed..

a few months ago all the negative reviews were purged from Dr Dryers rate my md page, and I have lost the screen I took to show the star system being skewed in her favor.

Even if it was valid to remove the reviews calling out the sexual assault, other negative reviews dissapeared at the same time, and I remember at least one being a real negative review by a patient.

Maybe this stayed cuz I set it to five star..

https://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/ ... r-BC.html/

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