Wednesday, August 30, 2017

If you use the Accuweather App, uninstall it

It is spying on you and selling the information to advertisers.  And lying to you about it:
AccuWeather is still sending precise geolocation data to a third-party advertiser, ZDNet can confirm, despite updating its app earlier this week to remove a feature that collected user's location data without their permission.
In case you missed it, AccuWeather was until this week sending the near-precise location of its iPhone app users to Reveal Mobile, a data monetization firm -- even when location sharing was switched off. Security researcher Will Strafach, who first reported the issue, also accused the company of sharing a user's precise GPS coordinates under the guise of providing local weather alerts.
The news sparked outrage and anger. AccuWeather responded with a forced apology, whichone leading Apple critic John Gruber called a "bulls**t response."
However, tests conducted by Strafach show that the updated app, released Thursday, still shares precise geolocation data with a data monetization and advertising firm.
It's not like there aren't a lot of weather apps, and these clowns have shown you how much you can trust them.


3 comments:

SiGraybeard said...

Great. I just switched to Accuweather from The Weather Channel.

The Weather Channel uses a random number generator for the chances of rain, swinging several tens of percents for no apparent reason. Accuweather appeared more reasonable.

Plus the Weather Channel is part of the Green Complex, the NBC/GE/Fed.Gov crony complex.

Unknown said...

I've heard good things about Dark Sky, which seems to be available on both iOS and Android.

Their privacy policy is here.

Comrade Misfit said...

Unknown, besides that Dark Sky's app, "WTForecast", is just fun.