| reply to RonSMeyer
Re: yes, WeatherBug is NOT SPYWARE No, WeatherBug is NOT spyware...
I happen to know...I work for them...
We do NOT track ANY usage. Heck, the most we look at is the ZIP code you put in, and that's just to make sure you get the weather in your area.
Yes, we do have advertisers. No we don't spam you with loads of pop-ups...In fact, the most I've ever seen is ONE on close.
We don't accept ads from inappropriate content sites...We don't report your usage or browsing habits to anyone. All we care about is getting you the weather. We use advertisers to pay the bills (you'd be surprised at the expense of running 7000+ weather stations et al).
If you don't like the advertising, we have an ad free version for $20 per year...that's less than $.50 per week...
Bottom line is, we don't really care where you go and what you do...If you're seeing symptoms of spyware it most certainly DID NOT come from us.
If it did, I wouldn't work here.
Khellhound
WeatherBug Employee and Proud. |
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| said by Khellhound:
Yes, we do have advertisers. No we don't spam you with loads of pop-ups...In fact, the most I've ever seen is ONE on close.
One too many. Bloatware. I'll pass.
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I am eating an apple. |
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davePremium,MVM
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio
kudos:7 Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to Khellhound
said by Khellhound:
We do NOT track ANY usage.
Your corporate objective seems to be to correlate cross-site browsing to sell advertising.
E.g., if I read this site, then read some other site, you'll be able to track that information by means of cookies - not to me personally, sure, but the click-trail is still correlated with a single user id.
Once you have that click-trail, you'll presumably deliver targetted advertising.
There are those that might like that ("cool, I only get adverts for things I'm interested in") and those, like me, that do not.
I agree that people should be able to make up their own minds as to whether they install funded-by-advertising-revenue types of services such as this. For that, full disclosure is necessary. And I mean full disclosure at the point at which the installation offer is made, not somewhere where you need to go looking for it. |
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1 edit | First off, Weatherbug is not directly sent to wherever its sent to, it is monitored by the gov't when the packets are sent it does go to weatherbug but yes yes yes it does go to homeland security. Look the gov't been using a program called echelon or some darn thing for over 30 years monitering phone call's and we are just now hearing about this... I am around a nuclear disarmament plant and for the past god knows how long it was just a large soap factory called Pantex. Do you honestly expect them to tell you they spy on you. NO NO NO.
THAT'S WHY IT'S CALLED SPYING... |
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| said by GodKhaine:
First off, Weatherbug is not directly sent to wherever its sent to, it is monitored by the gov't when the packets are sent it does go to weatherbug but yes yes yes it does go to homeland security. Look the gov't been using a program called echelon or some darn thing for over 30 years monitering phone call's and we are just now hearing about this... I am around a nuclear disarmament plant and for the past god knows how long it was just a large soap factory called Pantex. Do you honestly expect them to tell you they spy on you. NO NO NO.
THAT'S WHY IT'S CALLED SPYING...
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| reply to Khellhound
said by Khellhound:
No, WeatherBug is NOT spyware...
I happen to know...I work for them...
Oh, God... Not another one. |
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| reply to Khellhound
Agreed. Been using weatherbug for years. No problems at all. The only anoying thing for me is that when you want to close the app to the toolbar, you have to do it twice. Plus you get a pop-up on the first close. Weatherbug is a great app, and I even stole their radar maps to use for the weather gadget in gnome on my linux desktop. |
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| Also, I used a sniffer to look at what they send. Nothing weird, and the targeted advertising is based on what you reply when setting up the program. It DOES NOT track your web surfing. |
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 khc987
join:2001-08-22
Jacksonville, FL | reply to Khellhound
said by Khellhound:
No, WeatherBug is NOT spyware...
Yes, we do have advertisers. No we don't spam you with loads of pop-ups...In fact, the most I've ever seen is ONE on close.
If you don't like the advertising, we have an ad free version for $20 per year...that's less than $.50 per week...
I happen to like Weatherbug and dont think of it as spyware. Spyware to me is getting ads without you asking for them. At least with Weatherbug I get to choose which ad i get to look at for a couple of weeks. However I cant see paying $20.00 a year to have it without ads and dont really need the extras. |
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| Ad-Aware won't pick up the WildTangent anymore because it was removed from the R300 ref. file (and up). R299 was the last to contain WildTangent data.
Note that even though these items are not installed, the installers are still copied to the Hard Drive in the C:\Program Files\Aim\Sysfiles folder. C:\Program Files\Aws\WeatherBug is also created during the install. |
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| reply to Khellhound
what is GodKhaine smoking? WeatherBug in the event of another terrorist attack, is the only company in the USA with thousands of LIVE, LOCAL weather stations. PERIOD. THAT is why it is part of the dept. of Homeland Security Initiative. The National Weather Service (where many 'free' weather programs get their weather from) only has a few hundred, almost all are at airports, and they can update as rarely as once an hour. WOW GodKhaine, that sure would be useful if God forbid someone released some stuff into the air, like a chemical or biological agent. Gee, let's hope they released right near the airport and during the exact time each hour that the NWS sites update their data so we can tell which direction the wind is blowing.
OR for those of you who want to live, the Dept. of Homeland Security Initiative would instantly be able to track the wind direction and determine disperson based on one of the thousands of exclusive WeatherBug stations (yes, we also include ALL the NWS stations as well as our own 6500 or so sites).
As for me, I'll take LIVE and LOCAL wind instead of the wind direction an hour ago at the airport 30 miles from here.
what's next- is he going to say that because WeatherBug sends out Amber Alerts when a kid is kidnapped this is also spyware. give us a break.
Paul is alive. Elvis is dead. even conspiracy theorists need to check the facts. |
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DaemonPremium
join:2003-06-29
San Francisco, CA Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| Hey, as the OP, I thought I'd jump back in.
Weatherbug used to, or maybe still does, pop up those activeX 'do you want to install this great software! click yes!' popups that gator also uses. I hate those with a passion as they can be accidentally clicked if they happen to appear over a link you were going to click. it's also misleading as it's the same thing flash player uses to install itself, but weatherbug is not required for the website. It's guilt by association.
That turned me off to weatherbug.
Weatherbug also slowed a friend's computer quite noticably. Granted, it was an older version than now, but I've already lost faith.
When I originally posted, I assumed that AIM had you install weatherbug automatically without prompting, but it doesn't ,which is a step forward. What it doesn't make clear is that Weatherbug will deliver advertising to your computer. If you tell AOL to make that explicitly clear on the install page (NOT buried in a EULA), and they do it, I will remove my 'ugh' from the topic title.
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-Ryan
Find me in the networking and Microsoft help forums |
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 TraftonSteve RocksPremium
join:2003-02-18
Tacoma, WA
1 edit | reply to weatherbugja
Sorry for what may amount to revival, but I wanted to reply to this.
said by weatherbugja:
what is GodKhaine smoking? WeatherBug in the event of another terrorist attack, is the only company in the USA with thousands of LIVE, LOCAL weather stations.
I know what you mean by this, but it still sounds funny if you don't know the background. 
said by weathbugja:
PERIOD. THAT is why it is part of the dept. of Homeland Security Initiative. The National Weather Service (where many 'free' weather programs get their weather from) only has a few hundred, almost all are at airports, and they can update as rarely as once an hour. WOW GodKhaine, that sure would be useful if God forbid someone released some stuff into the air, like a chemical or biological agent. Gee, let's hope they released right near the airport and during the exact time each hour that the NWS sites update their data so we can tell which direction the wind is blowing.
This is a useful service, but not any reason to put something on one's computer that does not contain spyware. Although I am all for this sort of setup with the DHS, usign WeatherBug does not make this program any better. Although this is nice of AWS to do, and generally they seem to be within the more ethical of companies whose software phones home, it still doesn't make their software spyware-free.
said by weathbugja:
OR for those of you who want to live, the Dept. of Homeland Security Initiative would instantly be able to track the wind direction and determine disperson based on one of the thousands of exclusive WeatherBug stations (yes, we also include ALL the NWS stations as well as our own 6500 or so sites).
As for me, I'll take LIVE and LOCAL wind instead of the wind direction an hour ago at the airport 30 miles from here.
WeatherBug does not maintain these stations, per se. Many are school sites which are accessable via other venues. AWS simply collects all the information together into one place.
said by weathbugja:
what's next- is he going to say that because WeatherBug sends out Amber Alerts when a kid is kidnapped this is also spyware. give us a break.
I have no idea what you mean by this. WeatherBug displays adds and supposedly phones information back home. This is a tad different than displaying Amber Alerts. That would not be spyware, but rather a useful service. Spyware is used for marketing purposes. You can't really compare the two uses.
said by weathbugja:
Paul is alive. Elvis is dead. even conspiracy theorists need to check the facts.
Paint me stupid, but who is Paul? I don't think it is any conspiracy theory. WeatherBug's usefulness should be weighed against its privacy implications. I can understand why some people would find that the pros of using it outweigh the cons. I personally find alternatives for any program that phones home if I can. Besides, WeatherBug's automated stations don't provide useful information such as sky conditions |
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| said by Trafton:
said by weathbugja:
Paul is alive. Elvis is dead. even conspiracy theorists need to check the facts.
Paint me stupid, but who is Paul?
Paul McCartney. You know, "Paul is dead" ... |
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