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The Weather Channel App Sued Over Claims it Sold Location Data; The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office Claims App Has Repeatedly Violated Privacy of Consumers (nbcnews.com)

The Los Angeles City Attorney's office issued a cloudy forecast with the possibility of civil penalties for the popular Weather Channel app on Friday, claiming it repeatedly violated the privacy of consumers. From a report: In a civil lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, city prosecutors allege that The Weather Channel app led users to believe that it would use location data to provide them with "personalized local weather data, alerts and forecasts" but instead transmitted that data to third parties. The 15-page suit seeks to stop TWC Product and Technology LLC, a subsidiary of IBM, from using consumers' information and seeks civil penalties up to $2,500 for each violation by the company. Prosecutors allege that the firm profited from that data for purposes entirely unrelated to weather or the app. Further reading: The Register; Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They're Not Keeping It Secret, and Several Popular Apps Share Data With Facebook Without User Consent.

42 comments

  1. Whoops. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Maybe they forgot to include that clause in their massive EULA that nobody reads. What a stupid mistake, cut them off at the knees please. Make an example of them, and put Zuck in prison for lying to Congress while you're at it.

    *(and everyone else in the ridiculous incompetent lying treason administration)

    1. Re:Whoops. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Grammar Nazi here :: ambiguous compound nouns need a hyphen,
      "ridiculous incompetent lying treason administration" := "ridiculous-incompetent-lying-treason-administration".

      You're welcome.

      CAP === 'perusal'

    2. Re:Whoops. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Grammar nazis aren't supposed to be wrong though. "ambiguous compound nouns" // ridiculous = adjective. incompetent = adjective. lying = adverb. treason = noun, the object of the administration, a verb.

      Your suggestion would work better if it were "ridiculously incompetent lying-treason administration" but either way it's a mouthful. Really I should have just left it at "fucking treasonous faggots" and been done with it.

      So I'll go with that. Trump administration = fucking treasonous faggots.

      cap = impeach

    3. Re: Whoops. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why you gotta use the term faggot? Have you learned nothing? Good for thee but not me?

    4. Re: Whoops. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then just use FART - it has a number of apps including budgeting and expenses, house repair, healthcare, and travel.

    5. Re: Whoops. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was a very fair act by weather channel. It wasnâ(TM)t egregious enough to cause problems and it called attention to existing problems. Weather channel hurt itself more than anyone else

    6. Re: Whoops. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use it because it drives the closeted Trump traitors slightly nuts, they're so paranoid about being exposed as cocksuckers in public. "Out" gays don't tend to give a fuck, they can admit their status. Trump traitors desire prison cock.

      Why else would they back such an obvious traitor? They want to be violated in prison.

    7. Re:Whoops. by Dusanyu · · Score: 0

      What does the weather channel and, the L.A. City Attorney's office have to do with the xxecutive branch of the United States Government?

  2. Sad, Trust Noone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I dont know how a company can do this and ever expect to recover - we don't forget.

    1. Re:Sad, Trust Noone by reboot246 · · Score: 0

      Trust Noone? Why should I trust Peter Noone from Herman's Hermits?

    2. Re:Sad, Trust Noone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      exact...--- squirrel !!!!!!

  3. Punishment; Lash Jim Cantore to a pole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but he probably he likes it. Seriously, the why bother with the Weather Channel at all?

  4. Me and my llama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    are going to the dentist today,

  5. When can we expect the check. by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    Sued on behalf of us... so that's our money right?

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    [($)]
    1. Re:When can we expect the check. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Judging from your comment, I think you're looking for a different room of the omniverse.
      In this Universe, you can expect a coupon for up to $5 off the "pro version" of the app with less ads but more personalization (regularly $99 plus fees) .
      That's how this world works.

    2. Re: When can we expect the check. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um... no thanks

  6. Weather channel no good anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't even bear to go to the Weather channel site or app anymore. They always have those end of world dooms day prediction headlines. As if everything now bad is caused by global warming. Guess they never heard of the great flood, or ice age, or so many other extreme weather long before the human effect. Once I saw their reporters faking high winds, and driving rains. I couldn't believe anything they said. I expected nothing less then to sell me out as well.

  7. No Surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They've had sleazy clickbait ads for years on their website.

    (Scrolls down)

    Wait a second...

    1. Re:No Surprise by FunkSoulBrother · · Score: 1

      Yeah I don't know who didn't expect this, their website has rivaled your average local news affilliate in terms of terrible ads and 3rd party Javascript for years

    2. Re: No Surprise by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      I couldnt get TWCs web site to load in Firefox for about 4 months this year, even after disabling Adblock and allowing all scripts. I am assuming they fixed it but I have long since replaced my bookmark with Ventusky. I don't look at the forecasts ever but it's 100x better for real-time weather data. And it still would be, even if you had to click through fifty One Weird Tricks to get to it.

  8. Illegal in Washington State by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    We have strong constitutional rights of privacy here.

    Wonder if I should give the State Attorney General a call?

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:Illegal in Washington State by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can you please post a link to the legislation in question for Washington state?

  9. Long local on the 8's has cool and then they cut i by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    Long local on the 8's has cool and then they cut it down. Also no weather scan HD

  10. Sure, sure by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    Like I'm going to believe THAT.

    Next the LA Attorney's office will be claiming that the on-air talent for the Weather Channel weren't actually involved in the design of LL Bean's Weather Channel outerwear!

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    #DeleteChrome
  11. pay by bigtreeman · · Score: 1

    it's alright to use personal data so long as there is agreement before using and payment for use.

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    Go well
    1. Re:pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And there's no agreement, and FB was paying them on the DL because FB is shady AF and their CEO and CFO lie to Congress like it's nothing. Lock them up next to Trump.

  12. Projection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone knows without a doubt that the demographic that is extremely over-represented with faggots, trannies, militant lesbians, and other assorted human flotsam comprises the rabid anti-Trump crew. When I see your type of posts I always assume is was written by some angry cock smoker, attention seeking, gender confused tranny or else some impotent, noodle arm keyboard warrior acting out. Which one are you?

    captcha: vomited. I swear to God.

  13. TWC? Utterly useless. by TigerPlish · · Score: 1

    I ditched TWC app many years ago, when it was obvious each version was worse than the previous. For a while it was all crashola. I moved to Weather Underground's app.

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    The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
    1. Re: TWC? Utterly useless. by macwhiz · · Score: 1

      TWC owns Weather Underground. Both are owned by IBM, at least as far as the online side goes. IBM is slowly killing WU and pushing people to TWC services.

  14. how do they know? by renegade600 · · Score: 2

    the weather channel is embedded in so many different webpages, operating systems, and non-weather apps that you gave permission to share data with, I am wondering how do they know this is a weather channel app problem?

  15. Fuck em anyway. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    am wondering how do they know this is a weather channel app problem?

    Who care if it is? They are in on it and are part of the problem. Even if they are not the main source of the problem, everyone else should have something to think about. Like who to bribe next in gov.

  16. Fuck IBM! by SpzToid · · Score: 1

    Owner of The Weather Channel.

    Whatever reputation once held is long gone now.

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    You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
  17. burn em to the ground by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If this accusation proves true, destroy them. An example is long overdue in this space.

  18. Can't prove harm, will be tossed by gumpish · · Score: 1

    This will just get tossed by the judge for the same reason almost all privacy lawsuits that don't involve leaked footage of a naked celebrity are dismissed. The plaintiff can't PROVE they were harmed. Which apparently means the perp gets a freebie. That's some legal system we've got...

  19. Just like the local news channels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lemme guess. The Weather Channel's on-air talent wears Inflate-A-Bras.

  20. Re: TWC? Utterly useless. by andymadigan · · Score: 1

    I was disappointed when this was pointed out in the comments on Ars. I've been using Weather Underground for years and found it very useful, but I'd rather not have my every move sold to hedge funds. I disabled all location services and background app refresh for Weather Underground, and I've started training myself into using Dark Sky instead.

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    The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
  21. Raising hand, over here! How about Windows 10? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please!

  22. Re: TWC? Utterly useless. by q4Fry · · Score: 1

    I really like Dark Sky's future lows/highs display with the series of bars.