“Many weather apps today are designed to do more than forecast rain; they’re forecasting and tracking your behavior,” said Stepan Solovev, CEO & Co-founder of Soax. One of those revelations is as astonishing as it is disquieting: weather apps, ubiquitous tools that many people depend on daily, may be gathering and sharing your data without your express permission. Knowing this, the many ways this information can be used is astounding: from ads to surveillance, knowing what may be unwittingly shared can significantly change how we approach app permissions and data security.
Increased Use During Winter Months
People open weather apps more frequently during the cold season. According to The Guardian, this is because they are more anxious about the weather and want to be ready for extreme weather. As temperatures go down, users start relying heavily on correct forecasts to plan daily activities, trips, or methods of self-protection.
Meanwhile, one study shows that weather apps increase by as much as 30% during winter. While that suggests how integral weather data is to our daily lives, it also underlines volumes of personal information these apps could collect, especially when usage peaks.
How Weather Apps Are Collecting Your Data
Most such applications collect personal information about the user without their notice; here are some of the findings based on HackerDose’s research.
1. Location Data
One of the most prominent types of information that weather apps collect is geolocation. While knowing your location is necessary to give a decent forecast, this also means that your movements and locations can be tracked at any time. Such location information is of exceptionally high value in targeted advertising and may also be sold to third-party companies seeking to compile extensive user profiles.
2. Device Information
Weather apps can also collect detailed information about the device on which the app is running, including, but not limited to, model, operating system, unique identifier numbers, and sensor data in some cases. The device information is used to help developers improve an app’s performance; at the same time, it also enables the correlation between your activity on this app and potentially other applications or devices you are using.
3. Personal Preferences and Behaviour
In these regards, so many weather-related mobile applications provide personalized user experiences. To customize these weather forecasts and news, these applications track the frequency of a user checking the weather, the specific features used most by the user, and even the sleep pattern deduced by when the user starts an application and stops it. All these minor pieces of information accurately depict a person’s daily routines and preferences.
4. Communications and Contacts
Some apps may ask for access to your contact lists and communication logs to facilitate certain features, such as sharing updates with friends or emergency contacts about your weather. While this feature is intended to enable sharing, it can also expose your personal and professional networks to cybersecurity risks if their data is not adequately protected.
Key Takeaways
On the one hand, weather applications are handy, yet they may leak your personal information to some dubious third-party services. By knowing what kind of data these applications collect-location and device information, behavioral patterns, and even contact lists-you can be more conscious about the applications you install on your phone and the permissions you allow.
This research article was provided by soax.com
