Gig Economy, VPN & Subs · Weather App · Private litigation
The Weather Channel (Francisco Partners; formerly IBM) / AccuWeather
Headline
This is one of the starkest data-monetisation allegations in this tracker - and the underlying case is the reason it matters: the Los Angeles City Attorney sued The Weather Channel app in 2019 alleging it collected…
Not independently verified. Verification status: Unverified - heuristic first draft. Publish state: draft unverified.
This is one of the starkest data-monetisation allegations in this tracker - and the underlying case is the reason it matters: the Los Angeles City Attorney sued The Weather Channel app in 2019 alleging it collected precise location data ostensibly to deliver local forecasts and then used it for advertising and analytics purposes users were not meaningfully told about. Weather apps are the perfect vehicle for location harvesting because the permission request is self-justifying: of course a weather app needs to know where you are. Users grant continuous background location without hesitation, and continuous background location is the single most valuable consumer data stream that exists.
- Severity
- Evidence tierUnassigned
- Claims confirmed
- Last verified2026-08-04
Case status. Private litigation; no sources are on file yet, so no legal tier is assigned.
Primary source. None recorded — Unverified - heuristic first draft.
Terms
Arbitration
A California federal judge (2021) allowed most of a related class action to proceed, specifically rejecting TWC's argument that the mere existence of a privacy policy defeated the claim, because, in its March 17, 2021 order, it treated the policy as a browsewrap whose mere existence is not dispositive since users might lack actual or constructive knowledge of it (per ZwillGen's summary). The later outcome of the case (Hart, filed June 2020), including any settlement, was not verified.
Data sharing
ONE OF THE STARKEST DATA-MONETIZATION ALLEGATIONS IN THIS TRACKER: in litigation, The Weather Channel's operating company (TWC Product and Technology, then owned by IBM; IBM sold The Weather Company, including The Weather Channel app, to Francisco Partners in a deal that closed Feb 1, 2024) has been accused in litigation of a business model built on selling PRECISE, MINUTE-BY-MINUTE GEOLOCATION DATA (tracked continuously, 'day and night, 365 days a year,' even when the app is closed) to third parties including PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS AND HEDGE FUNDS, who reportedly use it to monitor consumer spending patterns — not weather-related use at all. TWC and IBM built a dedicated location-marketing platform called 'JOURNEYfx' specifically to commercialize this data, operating within what the litigation describes as a $21 BILLION location-targeting industry. The app's own consent flow reportedly never disclosed this monetization, instead framing location access as needed only for 'personalized local weather data, alerts, and forecasts.' Los Angeles's CITY ATTORNEY separately SUED TWC (2019) for deceptive data sale, seeking civil penalties up to $2,500 PER VIOLATION and forcing a settlement that required clearer disclosure of the constant-tracking practice going forward. SEPARATELY, in August 2017 security researcher Will Strafach found AccuWeather's iPhone app sending location-revealing data (including Wi-Fi router data) to data-monetization partner Reveal Mobile EVEN WHEN USERS HAD TURNED LOCATION SHARING OFF — a finding ZDNet independently verified; AccuWeather said the transmission was inadvertent and released an update removing the Reveal Mobile SDK.
Fees and billing
Not itemized this pass beyond the $2,500-per-violation civil penalty framework in the LA case.
Contacts
Privacy contact. Not recorded.
Legal notice. Not verified this pass. If publicly traded: SEC Form 10-K cover page gives the official corporate address; the Secretary of State business-entity search in the state of incorporation gives the registered agent, which must accept service. If private: the state registered agent is usually the only reliable route.
Mailing address. Not recorded.
Evidence
No claims have been itemized for this row yet.
No sources are on file for this row yet.
Source vault
Link status: Candidate - not yet fetched
| Document | Last fetch | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy policy weather.com/en-US/twc/privacy-policy | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Terms of service weather.com/en-US/twc/terms-of-use | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Website No URL recorded | Not fetched yet | — |
| Primary source No URL recorded Verification: Unverified - heuristic first draft | Not fetched yet | — |
Enforcement
No enforcement actions are linked to this row.
State statute
No HQ state on file, so no state statute applies by headquarters.