Discussion: Weather Channel App Accused Of Selling Users' Personal Data

Just another example in which, hopefully, the Democrats need to take seriously our Privacy Rights. This should help provide a long overlooked reclaiming of these rights.

Come on House.

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A spokesman for IBM Corp., which owns the app, said it has always been clear about the use of location data collected from users

That’s why they buried it in a 10,000 word user agreement, no doubt.

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I’m shocked to find out there is gambling at Rick’s.

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And that’s an easy area to go after; Force changes in the User Agreement.

Have as a default requirement that the company has to expressly make clear that they will sell this information; not buried in legalese.

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It would be nice if there was an opt-in requirement.

[ ] Yes, please sell my personal information to other companies so you can make profits and I can be harassed and inconvenienced.

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Never trust a channel that plays that much Smooooooothe Jazz.

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Indeed. I’m reminded of the time a judge read a user agreement during a trial and couldn’t understand it. She asked the attorneys defending it to translate parts of it to her in plain English to, you know, help out a novice. They couldn’t do it; they didn’t understand it either. As part of her questioning she asked “Who wrote it?” They didn’t know. She asked a number of follow-up questions, like “Was a member of the in-house legal team? Was it a group effort? Was it concrete evidence of divine intervention in that it obviously just spontaneously appeared?” They had no answers.

She eventually summarily dismissed the case with extreme prejudice more or less “in the interest of sanity.”

I wish I could find the article. It was some uproariously high comedy.

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“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

– Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

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Same mix they’ll use for the Soylent Corporation “going home” app

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I’m pleased whenever I see IBM lumped in with other technology giants obviously guilty of privacy abuses. It should happen more often. I’m sure they have scores of like violations and have their filthy digits in every privacy pie they can buy.

I worked for them and the day they bought The Weather Channel app I deleted it from my phone.

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Would it be unreasonable to expect an app or social media not to track and use your data out of the box period?

I can grumble about this all day long. Ultimately it is the end user who has to share blame for years of not paying attention, not demanding action and accepting it as a just is scenario. Facebook has proven every single thought I had on social media from the early days in general and specific to Facebook. Yet people think it is a necessary evil to have benefit. When you give them cautions, they poo-poo you off like you are an out of touch Luddite. But now they start screaming when they finally get it. In a way you can almost not blame the corps for taking advantage. No different than the end users who made every justification in the book for stealing music and using Kazaa, Limewire or BearShare. Then they get endlessly nailed by malware.

Absolutely. Those users were asking for it. Did you see what they were wearing?

I’m not onboard with the libertarian solution of blaming consumers for every consequence of their buying choices.

The libertarians have this fantasy that consumer choices will eliminate the bad actors, when history makes it very clear that, in our modern economy, bad actors crowd out the good guys if consumers don’t have assistance from legislators and regulators to create and enforce standards.

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The corps and other players taking advantage is of course wrong, I would not let them off the hook in the least. But I am addressing this attitude of so many consumers to ignore what people have tried telling them. Oh whee! this is the only way I can keep up with Auntie Mabel and Uncle Fred, so I know what I am doing. Oops, Facebook did it again, that’s okay, nothing important there to begin with! My app is tracking my every movement and selling it to unknown third parties? What the hey, the app is soooo cool and convenient. And on and on and on.

The difficult truth we will have accept. You cannot get something for nothing. When we have applications we can trust* we will have to PAY for their services.

'* that will require legislation, not libertarian markets, totally agree @ottnott

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No problem with that.

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Libertarian
a person who believes that people should be allowed to do and say what they want without any interference from the government :
1. an advocate of the doctrine of free will
2a : a person who upholds the principles of individual liberty especially of thought and action

synonym = lawless

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3.A rapeuglican who doesn’t want to admit it.

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Libertarian
a person who believes that people should be allowed to do and say whatever the fuck they want without any interference from the government, because the government should be busy protecting the private property of libertarians.

  1. an advocate of the doctrine of “I’ve got mine. Fuck you.”
  2. a person who upholds the principles of private property rights above all else, except maybe the principle that that there is no such thing as a public good.

Nice burn.

Law for thee, not for me.

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