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AccuWeather for iOS Sending Location Data to Monetization Company Even When Location Sharing is Off [Updated]
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I use Weatherbug because it has a lightening feature in the widget that's pretty accurate.... very important in Florida
I've had these types of companies ask me to put these types of analytics in my apps. My response is always: "**** off"
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Any which way to sneakingly make money. Blatantly dishonest. There is lots money to be made by selling your data, where you live, where you travel, what buy, etc. All of lit inked up. The escape route they use is that they say the data is 'anonymized' but if need be the data can be drilled down. Lots companies are selling your data that you don't know about. This is one that was found out.
Dark Sky has been great on my iPhone since I bought it a little over a year ago. The Apple Watch app however needs some serious work. I love the layout of the Apple Watch complication and the Apple Watch app, but the complication rarely stays updated. It will display outdated information or just stay blank. So infuriating.
Shady! I removed that junk app a about 2 months ago after the local Philly station replaced it with them, I was getting notifications when I had them off - even getting notifications from various locations I was in hours prior. One night I was already home from Baltimore..100 miles from me, I get an alert for a "Tornado watch - Baltimore area" and I'm nowhere near the city anymore. Plus I didn't even realize the app "followed me" and where I was. So forget it, the app and company stinks!
Simply put, I cannot STAND AccuWeather. The Weather Channel was removed from FIOS a few years ago and replaced with this 3rd rate channel that actually play "reruns" of a local forecast with these awkward meteorologist hacks mixed with goofy grade school looking Windows graphics. Terrible channel!
Simply put, I cannot STAND AccuWeather. The Weather Channel was removed from FIOS a few years ago and replaced with this 3rd rate channel that actually play "reruns" of a local forecast with these awkward meteorologist hacks mixed with goofy grade school looking Windows graphics. Terrible channel!
Trouble with Accuweather is a lot of apps and services use them, so I presume the same tracking is going on with them? Not good, I can understand why they do it though as it's no different to all those freemium games, collecting all that data on you and selling it.
Data mining has been going on for so long now on mobile, it's a very well developed source of income for many..
http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/16/we-own-you-confessions-of-a-free-to-play-producer/
Data mining has been going on for so long now on mobile, it's a very well developed source of income for many..
http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/16/we-own-you-confessions-of-a-free-to-play-producer/
I wish Apple would enforce a concise, consumer friendly label on all apps in the app store similar to nutritional labels on food products. Instead of calories and grams of fat & protein, the label should CLEARLY state what information leaves your phone via that app (i.e. IP address, GPS location, wi-fi router name, etc.). They don't have to tell me who they sell that information to as that would likely change frequently (and I really don't care which data aggregator they are selling to) but it is a safe bet that if they are collecting it, they are also selling it.
Anonymized data is never truly anonymous. It's frequently possible to use statistical correlation and AI-based data mining technology to tag anonymous users, and join information with other databases. For example, even if my location data is anonymous, I spend more time at home and work than anywhere else. If I submitted my GPS data anonymously, my bank could very easily identify me, because they know where I live and where I work. Then you can mix your browsing habits, where you go to buy your groceries, how often, etc. It's not enough to charge someone with a crime, but it can still cause a lot of trouble. Consider a small company with 10 employees, it's pretty easy to tag anonymously collected data, and identify each person with a high confidence, even with regular statistical methods, even more so with deep learning.
Dee Lee Ted
Have been noticing the icon on my phone stating something was tracking my location (when I knew I didn't have something open that should be). Don't know if this was it, but I'm not going to wait to find out.
Have been noticing the icon on my phone stating something was tracking my location (when I knew I didn't have something open that should be). Don't know if this was it, but I'm not going to wait to find out.
Will this app be immediately banned from the App Store?
If not, why not?
If not, why not?
This is 100% dead on accurate.
There is a great book on called "What stays in Vegas: The world of personal data" by Adam Tanner. I have used Mr. Tanner's book in a graduate course I teach on data analysis. The book is what I call a "why" book rather than a "how" book. The book describes what all CAN be done with data without going into all the details of exactly how it is done. One example in particular from that book was about volunteers who took part in a medical study. Their data was "anonymized" for privacy purposes. Years after the study was over, some researchers obtained the "anonymized" data and figured out who several of the participants were who had participated in the study.
This is why "people with nothing to hide" should still be concerned about how much data they leak every moment of every day.
Are you saying you’re a developer and have your own weather app on the App Store? If so, what’s it called?
Apolloa, thank you for posting that link. I had not seen that article before but I just read it and it confirms everything I have ever suspected (and then some) about "free" games.