Weather Channel Data Collection - ThreatWire (Patreon)

Well over a year ago, the Weather Channel app, owned by IBM, was hit with a lawsuit for their alleged collection and use of user data such as precise location. With over 45 million users monthly, it would affect many users as “the world’s most downloaded weather app”. Had the data collection been upfront, they probably wouldn’t be hit with this lawsuit, but the city of Los Angeles stated they misled and misinformed consumers about how the location data is utilized, not telling users this data was allowing the Weather Channel app to profit off it’s collection.

At the time, IBM refuted the claims, calling them baseless and said they’d “defend [their disclosures] vigorously”. Last week IBM came to a settlement with the Los Angeles city attorney’s office in regards to this lawsuit. The Weather Channel still argued that the information was properly disclosed to users via the online privacy policy, but the settlement still has IBM agreeing to revise the data privacy disclosures. The new disclosure will come in the form of a permission prompt presented to users when enabling location tracking. So it doesn’t sound that baseless after all. IBM also agreed to donate technology to the city and county to help deal with covid19 relief and contact tracing efforts.

In the final settlement, it was found that the Weather Channel did disclose their handling of data but the lawsuit argued that most users don’t sit and read all that fine print so it should be presented in a user-friendly way.

While they agreed to change how they disclose this location data sharing and sales, this also means they are continuing to share this data with advertisers, they’re now just being more upfront about it. While it may be a win for disclosure practices, it is not a win for location data sales practices, which is still very privacy invasive.

Weather Channel App Data Privacy settlement:

https://threatpost.com/lawsuit-weather-channel-location-data/140579/

https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/554-l-a-weather-app-location/8980fd9af72915412e31/optimized/full.pdf

https://filedn.com/lOJqn8isbUNJvUBnJTlV5OS/Weather%20Channel%20App%20Aug%202020.pdf

https://threatpost.com/ibm-settles-lawsuit-over-weather-channel-app-data-privacy/158529/

https://www.cnet.com/news/weather-channels-location-data-settlement-doesnt-mean-much-for-your-privacy/

Support me on alternative platforms! https://snubsie.com/support

Shop ThreatWire Merch Directly! - https://snubsie.com/shop

Shop ThreatWire Merch on Teespring! - https://teespring.com/stores/shannons-store-24

http://www.youtube.com/ShannonMorse?sub_confirmation=1  --  subscribe to my tech channel!

ThreatWire is only possible because of our Patreon patrons! Sign up now for ACTION ALERTS! Help me reach our next ThreatWire goal to unlock merch tiers and an audio podcast! https://www.patreon.com/threatwire