Complaint Review: WeatherBug - Internet Internet

Ive installed Weatherbug on my test bed. For those of you not so tech savy, a test bed is another way to say "extra expendable computer that I'm not worried about completely screwing up with dubious software or hardware". My findings...... Weatherbug does install Gator software. Gator is an agressive "adware". Meaning it does track what you do, and sends that data out. Weatherbug does install Doubleclick. Same as Gator above. Its aggressive, tracks your surfing habits, and throws popups to "cater" to your surfing habits. Weatherbug alters the file svchost.exe. Often spyware, malware, adware, etc mess around with this file. Not enough to trip the alarms on anti-spy and virus software. But certainly enough to do harm and track whats going on. By the way svchost is a networking component to Windows (as far as I know...not FULL on the exact duties here...feel free to correct or clarify if you are more familiar). Why programs need to alter this file is beyond me. Its quite common tho, and Im sure its for dubious reasons. This information was found via Spybot, and Adaware SE. The svchost.exe issue was found by simple looking in task manager before, and after the Weatherbug installation. NO ACTION WAS TAKEN TO REMOVE THESE ISSUES. Since this computer is a test bed to me, I will just be wiping the hard drive clean and copy a clean install over from backup (which is how you run a test bed). I did not attempt to use Spybot or Adaware to fix these issues. So I do not know how much trouble you folks might be in should you try. In my experience, Gator and Doubleclick are usually no problem to kill....once you have eliminated the carrier. In this case the "carrier" is Weatherbug. As for the svchost.exe file......good luck. In the end, I'm sure Weatherbug is a useful program. Unfortunately like so many other companies, they seem to have fallen into the greed factor by adding this garbage to their program. Let them whine all they want about what IS or ISNT spyware, or adware etc. It really doesnt matter. In this case you ARE getting more than you paid for, and that little extra....is dubious.

Welcome to the wonderful "Wild Wild West" known as the Internet and software! Here are some simple facts, ideas, and opinions to decide for yourself if Weatherbug is legit, reasonable, or honest....... First, the internet, computers, and software most importantly are fairly new things to this world. The laws that regulate them and, most important, title what they ARE, are few and inconsistant. Lets take this Weatherbug software as an example. I know nothing about it. So I am going to stay as un-biased as I can. When you buy software, you do so to fulfill a need. This software should meet your needs for a specific function. Now if this software does that....GREAT! But if they package something else with it, be it "spyware" or "adware" or "junkware" or whatever they feel they want to call it at that time, then something is amiss. It comes down to this...If you buy a software package, then most likely you JUST want THAT software. Nothing more. This person that is defending Weatherbug and saying "weatherbug does not have spyware" may be correct in the "legal" sense of the word. But in reality they are just playing with words. Obviously there is SOMETHING added to this software that gets installed above and beyond the basic stuff. If they want to try and pull the "legal" terminology...thats fine. But in the end there is SOMETHING extra that obviously people dont want (thus this post!). So my suggestion to the poster is...RUN! These guys are not playing fairly, or being completely upfront. My suggestion to Weatherbug is this.... Call this extra "software" whatever you want. Call it spyware, adware, freeware, junkware, ware, or just crap! Its all comes down to the same thing. You have customers out there that have found "extra" things, and they dont want them! While you may be within your legal limits because the laws in this area are so vague, its starting to show your lack of integrity. Personally anything that watches where you surf (IE: gator, doubleclick, etc.) is spyware in my book. Hands down. Anyone that trys to tell you differently is just playing with words.

Good point,Jennifer.To the employee who defended Weatherbug,If your product is not Spyware,then how do you know such accurate statistics?I have used Weatherbug before(Im sure their spyware told them)I would be right in the middle of something,and up their program would pop.I can just turn on the Television or Radio to get the weather,Your garbage spyware is not needed.Now answer Jennifer's point.

Regarding this statement: "It would NOT be very wise if we WERE spyware or adware to voluntarily give away downloads to 21 million monthly users for spyware/adware detectors if we were either one." I once saw a tv report saying that a lot of the companies that create and/or distribute pop up and spam BLOCKING software are OFTEN THE SAME companies that are the culprits behind the CREATION of popups ... couldn't the same be true for spyware detectors??? Regarding this statement: "Our data is: - viewed by over 80 million households a month, both on-line and off-line - accessible to The Department of Homeland Security for live, real-time plume modeling and weather data, and our weather stations are at 15 Coast Guard bases, the US Naval Academy, Quantico Marine Base and USAF Academy - used by dozens of city, county and state emergency managers in assessing the impact of current weather conditions on hazardous situations and natural disasters, - in 8,000 schools and dozens of major universities across the US, helping teach math and science along with our WeatherBug curriculum which won a Smithsonian Laureate, was selected by Media & Methods Magazine as 2002's Education Technology of the Year, and chosen by District Administration Magazine as a Top 100 product (2003) and the NASBE "Friend of Education Award" (2004); - used by meteorologists at over 100 TV stations to bring neighborhood weather forecasts and conditions to communities every day." HOW do you know this unless you ARE tracking the computers using the program??? My grandma downloaded this software and it bogged down her system so badly that she tried to delete it, resulting in her computer crashing and hours to try to figure out what went wrong.

"For the record, spyware tracks web surfing activity and sometimes reads what is on the user's hard drive. WeatherBug is not capable of tracking your overall web use or deciphering anything on your hard drive." Oh, really? Interesting how, when I uninstalled Weatherbug from my computer two years ago, I got an email from Weathebug asking me WHY I deleted it. You don't have to "decipher" anything on a hard drive when you're sitting on it, obviously looking at it often enough to know when that transmitted information stops looping to you. I was sort of freaked-out to receive an email so blatantly letting me know they knew I removed them from my system. For that reason alone, I would say Weatherbug sits on the border of the Malware classification.

"For the record, spyware tracks web surfing activity and sometimes reads what is on the user's hard drive. WeatherBug is not capable of tracking your overall web use or deciphering anything on your hard drive." Oh, really? Interesting how, when I uninstalled Weatherbug from my computer two years ago, I got an email from Weathebug asking me WHY I deleted it. You don't have to "decipher" anything on a hard drive when you're sitting on it, obviously looking at it often enough to know when that transmitted information stops looping to you. I was sort of freaked-out to receive an email so blatantly letting me know they knew I removed them from my system. For that reason alone, I would say Weatherbug sits on the border of the Malware classification.

I also have the same problem with Weatherbug! When Norton scans my computer, the Weather Bug is always one of the ones it recommends I should get rid of because of the adware! However, my computer can't seem to get rid of it! I have e-mailed several letters to Weatherbug and have never received a response. I even called a phone number for them once and was told someone would help, but they never responded back to that either! Great customer care!!

regarding the report above that WeatherBug installs Gator- absolutely, 100% incorrect. RUN ANY REPUTABLE SPYWARE DETECTION PROGRAM and see for yourself. None of the major spyware detectors call WeatherBug spyware, adware or any other sort of threat, because it is not. Personal opinions or definitions should not matter- what matters is what the companies whose job it is to detect spyware/adware say: Norton, Mcafee, Spybot, AdAware SE, Microsoft Giant (beta of course), Pest Patrol, Zone Alarm, Black Ice, BlueCoat, F-secure, Surf Control, A-sqaured, AVG antivirus, Bazooka, Aluria, Spyware Doctor, SpyHunter, SpyCrusher, Ewido, etc. etc. etc.....DO NOT LIST WeatherBug. Our formal spyware policy can be found at: http://www.weatherbug.com/aws/support/faq_spyware.htm where you can find free downloads to what we believe are some of the most effective anti-spyware detection programs, as part of our commitment to end spyware. It would NOT be very wise if we WERE spyware or adware to voluntarily give away downloads to 21 million monthly users for spyware/adware detectors if we were either one. For the record, spyware tracks web surfing activity and sometimes reads what is on the user's hard drive. WeatherBug is not capable of tracking your overall web use or deciphering anything on your hard drive. We were founded in 1993, WeatherBug owns and operates the world's largest network of weather stations and is one of the top 10 Internet properties in daily reach according to Media Metrix. Our data is: - viewed by over 80 million households a month, both on-line and off-line - accessible to The Department of Homeland Security for live, real-time plume modeling and weather data, and our weather stations are at 15 Coast Guard bases, the US Naval Academy, Quantico Marine Base and USAF Academy - used by dozens of city, county and state emergency managers in assessing the impact of current weather conditions on hazardous situations and natural disasters, - in 8,000 schools and dozens of major universities across the US, helping teach math and science along with our WeatherBug curriculum which won a Smithsonian Laureate, was selected by Media & Methods Magazine as 2002's Education Technology of the Year, and chosen by District Administration Magazine as a Top 100 product (2003) and the NASBE "Friend of Education Award" (2004); - used by meteorologists at over 100 TV stations to bring neighborhood weather forecasts and conditions to communities every day. PLEASE check the facts before spreading rumors- whether these are coming from our competitors or not I don't know, but WeatherBug is a safe program used by 21 million unique monthly users, thousands of schools and MAJOR universities, the US Military and govt. branches, energy companies and over 100 TV stations across our country. If you have any questions, please click the word "SUPPORT" at www.weatherbug.com to send our support team an email.

I read this thread with amazement from the employee. There are other weather programs that are better. WeatherBug loaded Gator on my system and innondated my computer with popups. If this is not adware, it was not exactly expected or welcomed. Google WeatherBug spyware and you will see lots of links. Why are they trying so hard to claim they are not adware?

I only tried the free program I never got the pro version. But if you remove the well lets not threaten here "adaware" lol It stops working or runs sluggish and slows the pc untill it automatically reinstalls the software removed by a spyware remover or manually removed. But Its a great weather product dont get me wrong . Its not malware or anything dangerous. But why why why why the extra software?

There are really two different kinds of Internet applications. There's adware and then there's advertising-supported software. - Adware are nefarious applications that collect marketing information about a consumer's habits with/without their permission. These include Claria, WhenU and others. - Advertising-supported software, which is the class WeatherBug falls into, are desktop applications like Real Player, AOL Instant Messenger and WeatherBug that simply run ads to keep the product free for users. - Advertising-supported software is an extension of an accepted advertising/media business model that has been around since Gutenberg. In addition to this business model, customers who do not want the ads but still want the life saving data and alerts from WeatherBug can purchase WeatherBug Plus, which includes no ads. Regarding the My Search, this a companion tool to WeatherBug, which gives our users another way to get live, local weather via their search tool bar. There are opt out options as we always offer a choice. I hope this clarifies any misnomers about WeatherBug.

Rob didn't call your product spyware, he said it came with a file that sounds like spyware. I notice you never answered that charge in your rebuttal. I'd also like an explanation of the info below that I found on the Spybot website concerning your weatherbug program. Psssttt ... Doubleclick is very, very well known for being a bad company! --------- Threats - Search MiniBug 2003-05-03 17:32:16 Company AWS, Inc. Aliases URLs Website (http://www.aws.com/) Product (http://www.weatherbug.com/) Privacy (http://ww3.weatherbug.com/aws/default.asp?cid) Functionality Displays ads inside Weatherbug Description The opting in process during installation doesn't make very clear that the personally identifiable information will be shared. Also, my tests showed connection to DoubleClick, a company known for tracking cookies. Update: newer WeatherBug versions indeed have an Exit button. Please note: this detection has been mainly added for those who installed WeatherBug unintentionally. If you installed it intentionally, you should read its Privacy Policy carefully and decide yourself if you want to keep it or not. Privacy If you are providing us Personally Identifiable Information, it will only be used within the AWS, Inc Internet domains unless you choose to allow third party data sharing (by opting in for such distribution during the registration process). Should you choose to provide your information to third parties, WeatherBug.com will share aspects of your information with our valued partners.

Then remove the third party software that monitors our surfing habits. IF we paid for it than we shouldn't have to go though the hell of picking a sponsor, having "my search toolbar" installed and what grabbed me the most is when "save now" is removed the program stopped running. Until you have a direct link on your site that allows us to download the program without the bloatware (for those who paid for it) it will stay It's not spyware it's adaware simular issues but same thing and it's annoying. You have a great product but please remove the adware in the paid version.

We request an immediate withdrawal of this false implications that are on your website. This reference to WeatherBug as spyware is very damaging and inaccurate. Our software is not, and never has been spyware (see www.WeatherBug.com/notspyware), we have the TRUSTe and "Aluria Spyware-free" certifications, and are a member of www.coast-info.org. Could you immediately remove this information from your website and please advise that you have? We have millions of users who count on us for weather conditions, forecasts and life-saving alerts from our network of 7,000 weather sensors-- so we always move swiftly to ensure this kind of inaccurate reference is deleted.