LA City Sues Weather App Over Data Collection

The City of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit against a popular US-based weather app, alleging it illegally sells user data to third parties. LA city attorney, Mike Feuer, is claiming the Weather Channel app misled users in that most agreed to allow it access to their location data purely for personalized forecasts. In reality, this data was also sold to websites for targeted ads and to hedge funds to assist with analysis of consumer behavior, according to the suit. At least a dozen websites over the past 19 months are said to have used the data to personalize advertising. Feuer alleged that disclosure on this practice is hidden away in a 10,000-word privacy policy. “If the cost of a weather forecast will be the sacrifice of deeply private information – like precisely where we are, day and night – it must be clear, in advance,” he argued. “But we allege TWC elevates corporate profits over users’ privacy, misleading them into allowing their movements to be tracked, 24/7. We’re acting to stop this alleged deceit.”