Weather Channel app accused of selling users' personal data

The Weather Channel used its app to track the whereabouts of its users and sold it to third-party websites for targeted ads, Los Angeles prosecutors said Friday as they sued to stop the practice.

The company misled users of the popular app to think their location data would only be used for personalized forecasts and alerts but instead covertly mined the information for corporate profit, City Attorney Michael Feuer said.

Feuer alleged the Weather Channel intentionally obscured its motives in a lengthy privacy policy that got four-fifths of users to agree to share geolocation data.

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