Sam Dean reports:
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office alleges in a lawsuit that a subsidiary of IBM deceptively mined the private location data of users of the Weather Channel app and sold it to advertising and marketing companies.
When users download the app, a prompt asks them to grant access to their location so the app can provide “personalized local weather data, alerts and forecasts.” The app then tracks the user’s movements, allowing the Weather Company, which operates the app independent of the Weather Channel and uses its data to fuel IBM’s Watson Advertising products, to sell that information to hedge funds, advertising firms and corporate clients like McDonald’s and Subway.
Read more on Los Angeles Times.