LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles prosecutors say they’re suing The Weather Channel to stop it from tracking the whereabouts of app users and selling the data to third parties.
City Attorney Michael Feuer said Friday that users of the popular app are misled to think their location data will only be used for personalized forecasts and alerts.
Feuer says The Weather Channel intentionally obscured its motives in a lengthy privacy policy that got four-fifths of users to agree to share geolocation data.
The lawsuit comes as companies such as Facebook and Google are under fire for sharing users’ information.
Feuer says The Weather Channel sold data to at least a dozen websites for targeted ads.
A company representative says it’s “always been transparent with use of location data” and will vigorously defend the “fully appropriate” disclosures.