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

[Disco Bob]

A week after Privacy International reported that the Weather Channel app (among more than a dozen other popular apps) send certain data to Facebook the second that they are opened on a phone, the Los Angeles City Attorney's office has issued a cloudy forecast with the possibility of civil penalties for the popular Weather Channel app, 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.  

 

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