LA city attorney suing Weather Channel app over user-data sharing

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer has filed a lawsuit against the Weather Channel's popular mobile app over sharing of user data.

The suit alleges the app secretly used the location information of millions of its users and illegally sold it to advertisers and marketing companies.

It says the Weather Channel app misled users to believe their location would only be used to provide accurate weather reports.

"It's more important than ever to put a stop to any situation in which our privacy is being taken from us, as we allege here, without our knowing about it," Feuer said.

IBM is the owner of the Weather Channel's mobile app, but not of the actual cable television station.

IBM denies any impropriety in the sharing of location data collected from users.

A company spokesman issued a statement: "The Weather Company has always been transparent with use of location data; the disclosures are fully appropriate, and we will defend them vigorously."