AccuWeather Updates Its iOS App To Address Privacy Outcry (techcrunch.com)

Posted by msmash on Thursday August 24, 2017 @05:20AM from the please-forgive-us dept.

Taylor Hatmaker, writing for TechCrunch: Responding to privacy concerns, AccuWeather is out with a new version of its iOS app that removes a controversial data sharing behavior. Earlier this week, security researcher Will Strafach called attention to the practice in a post and users took to Twitter to announce their intention to dump the app in droves. "AccuWeather's app employed a Software Development Kit (SDK) from a third party vendor (Reveal Mobile) that inadvertently allowed Wi-Fi router data to be transmitted to this third-party vendor," the company wrote in a statement accompanying the app update. "Once we became aware of this situation we took immediate action to verify the operation and quickly disabled the SDK from the IOS app. Our next step was to update the IOS app and remove Reveal Mobile completely."

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naive by supernova87a · 2017-08-24 05:28 · Score: 5, Interesting

I mean, maybe I'm just naive, but don't most people just assume that your phones/apps are leaky and not rely on them to say that they're protecting your privacy? I think it's worse that you act based on the assumption that your info is not being collected/transmitted/sold/leaked to others...