Facebook and the Weather Network Are Sending Users on an All-Expenses Paid Guilt Trip ⇥ theverge.com
Kim Lyons, the Verge:
Facebook is continuing its campaign against Apple’s iOS 14 privacy updates, adding a notice within its iOS app telling users the information it collects from other apps and websites can “help keep Facebook free of charge.” A similar message was seen on Instagram’s iOS app (Facebook is Instagram’s parent company).
You think Facebook’s threat of having to pay to use its services is bad? Wait until you see what Canada’s own Weather Network has cooked up.
Well that escalated quickly ;)
“The @weathernetwork helps SAVE LIVES! Allow us to track your activity across apps?”
(Subtext: people will *die* if you block tracking in @Apple iOS14…)
Weather apps are among the greatest abusers of users’ privacy. That is not true for all weather apps — Hello Weather, Carrot, and many others have reassuring privacy policies — but the ones from big companies like the Weather Network, the Weather Channel, and AccuWeather share user data widely. I am disappointed Apple allowed such a disingenuous description in the Weather Network’s permissions request prompt.