HN Gopher Feed (2017-08-26) - page 1 of 10 ___________________________________________________________________
Despite privacy outrage, AccuWeather still shares location data
with ad firms
69 points by uladzislau
http://www.zdnet.com/article/accuweather-still-shares-precise-lo...___________________________________________________________________
gramakri - 1 hours ago
Worries me that the request is made with http and the screen cap
has some items blacked out.
willstrafach - 11 minutes ago
That was just to redact sensitive information.
gramakri - 3 minutes ago
Of course. I am worried that sensitive information is being
sent via HTTP.
ve55 - 1 hours ago
If as a user, these types of things anger you, please just stop
using the product.These practices will continue to get worse as
long as users put up with it.
jacquesm - 1 hours ago
Then you might as well stop using your smartphone and all 3rd
party apps on it.The vast majority contain SDKs which tattle your
whereabouts, contacts and other interesting tidbits to
advertising networks.
ruslan_talpa - 1 hours ago
Or, you might as well start paying for the apps you use (like
more than $1) :)The vast majority of FREE 3rd party apps have
tracking SDK, that is an important distinction. I mean really,
what did you expect, the developers of those apps giving them
for free in exchange for nothing? (the fact that they hide this
is another discussion)
shostack - 34 minutes ago
Serious question... Is there any data on usage of tracking
for paid vs free apps?There are plenty of cookie onboarding
vendors who will pay a monthly recurring CPM rate for mobile
logins that they can match against and they do not require
you to show ads.So if the majority of users are not privacy
aware and would just accept whatever permissions are
requested, what is the disincentive for a paid app to include
these trackers and add a recurring revenue stream?
Silhouette - 53 minutes ago
Then you might as well stop using your smartphone and all 3rd
party apps on it....Is probably the right answer.Unfortunately,
if you want a phone that actually works these days, you're
basically stuck with iOS or Android devices, and all the junk
that implies.If I could buy a modern dumbphone that just works
as a phone, with decent components so it has good reception and
reliability, and ignore the whole smartphone fiasco altogether,
I'd do it in a heartbeat.
AndrewCHM - 46 minutes ago
You can buy a phone like that, they are usually advertised
for rural useedit: or you can make one http://zerophone.org/
which also has plans to crowdfund some pre-built phones
Silhouette - 38 minutes ago
I'd love to, but as someone who has spent a lot of time
looking recently, it's certainly not easy to find anything
suitable here in the UK. You can get dumbphones, but
getting a good dumbphone, with reliable reception and
decent battery life, is a different question altogether.If
you want anything at all beyond basic features, like say a
dual SIM option for use when travelling, you're straight
into high-end smartphone territory, even if you actually
have no interest in the so-called smart parts of the
device.
jacquesm - 37 minutes ago
I could put you in my will and leave my Nokia to you, I'm
fairly sure it will still work by that time :)
ryanwaggoner - 35 minutes ago
Would love a source for the "vast majority" part. I doubt
hardly any of the apps I use on a regular basis do this,
assuming I even give them those permissions.
willstrafach - 13 minutes ago
It is a cynical opinion often repeated, but is not true. Many
apps use analytics but limit it to data such as crash
information and device hardware / OS version.There are
absolutely other apps which perform tracking similar to
AccuWeather, but not many (on iOS anyway).
whitepoplar - 1 hours ago
This might be a good time to share what is (in my opinion) the
absolute best weather app for iOS: Hello Weather. It's minimal,
functional, and beautifully designed.
rosstex - 1 hours ago
Yesterday, I uninstalled AccuWeather. This morning, I happily
connected a game to Facebook to play with friends. Then I read this
article. I'm such a hypocrite.
throwaway2048 - 32 minutes ago
Being a hypocrite dosent make you wrong, or your actions
meaningless. After all everyone is responsible in at least a tiny
way for most of societies systematic ills, but that dosent mean
that speaking out, and acting out against them is stupid,
pointless or self defeating.
lettergram - 1 hours ago
Although, I like their service - just uninstalled. Peace.Didn't
even realize this was happening until this article. But seriously,
we should consider enacting laws against this. For advertising
purposes they shouldn't need anything more than a city location.
Even then, there should be an option to turn it off.
rocky1138 - 2 minutes ago
theweathernetwork.ca has always had better results for me. On
mobile you can save a bookmark to it on your home screen so it
works just like an app. Open in Ghostery to block the ads and
you're on your way.
hex-m - 1 hours ago
EU GDPR: "Valid consent must be explicit for data collected and
the purposes data is used for."
Silhouette - 51 minutes ago
But the GDPR doesn't come into effect until May next year.
Spooky23 - 36 minutes ago
Well, yeah. This is the company that lobbied hard to restrict
release of public research (ie NOAA mapping data). Of course they
are scum.
marksomnian - 1 hours ago
Classic corporate response. They're sorry because their analytics
shows that brand sentiment will increase by x%, and they don't even
need to mean it.Happy customer of Dark Sky here.
willstrafach - 17 minutes ago
Dark Sky actually addressed this topic recently with some
additional information. Good read.https://blog.darksky.net
/location-privacy/
teej - 1 hours ago
Recent convert to Dark Sky. Highly recommend it. One of those
increasingly rare instances where you can pay upfront for quality
software.
RBerenguel - 28 minutes ago
Unless you are outside the US or UK or don't want to create a
new iTunes account tied to those places (if you happen to have
a valid card or an iTunes gift card for these countries)
Terretta - 18 minutes ago
https://darksky.net/