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Privacy respecting weather app for Android

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Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#61

Post by donkeyd »

xcambar wrote: post #29
donkeyd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. That's why I like the privacy cards on the iOS App Store a lot. For apps like this, it makes it really easy to spot the ones that'll record my location data on their servers for some reason. It's the same with fitness tracking apps, so many of them send health data to their servers, but there are a few (often paid ones, of course) that seem to store important data only locally.

Can you name a few, please? I am very reluctant to fitness apps and devices for that exact reason and I'd really like to see a privacy friendly app. Bonus points if you know devices that can be used with local data only.

Interestingly, they are often developed in Germany. One I found is Fitness Point. They use Google analytics and ads, so privacy is relative. However, unlike for example apps like MyFitnessPal and apps by brands like Nike, they don't use your fitness data (like weight) for direct advertising.

The major apps all have the ability to market weight loss products when you gain weight, for example, which is the thing I personally resent the most.

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#62

Post by pveierland »

autoexec wrote: post #54
barsonme wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you could use cryptography.

> Or, you could use cryptography. Even if the traffic is encrypted if a remote server has to understand what location you're requesting data for, find that data for you, and then deliver it back to you, that same server will be able to log that and you're back to having to trust that they won't save and abuse that data.

With homomorphic encryption, you could serve data in a scenario like this without revealing information about the user location to the server.

An example which allows you to read Wikipedia articles from the server, without the server knowing which article you are requesting, exists here: https://spiralwiki.com/

I don't think something like this is in regular use yet, but it could become an interesting solution to reduce leaking user information.

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#63

Post by TekMol »

fulafel wrote: post #34
TekMol wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Web apps can do that too. Google for "pwa sync background" to see how.

I ended up here https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Periodi... - but the browser compatbility says it's missing from Firefox which probably many/most F-Droid users are using. But maybe it's possible to use the other PWA support without the periodic sync API to cook up similar functionality?

Unfortunately, Firefox seems to generally not like the idea that the Browser is used as an application platform.

A way more fundamental API they refuse to implement is the file access api. Which lets you build web apps that can open and save local files. With this API, Chrome is now a great application platform for which you can write software that can be used just like desktop software.

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#64

Post by trabant00 »

I've tested https://openweathermap.org/ multiple times in different places in Europe. The forecasts are far from accurate when compared to weather.com (which is the data source for google weather). Right now for example it show 6 degrees C less than real for my location for the entire week.

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#65

Post by Markoff »

tasuki wrote: post #46
Markoff wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Weather.com is not the most accurate data source in many places. For instance in Prague by my research Dark Sky is the most accurate, then there is big gap and it's followed by Wunderground/AccuWeather and possibly Weather.com (though I think Wunderground/Weather are often same if chosen specific location)

What model does Dark Sky use? I find its interface a bit too simplified, though it does have all the important info. I'm Czech and always looking for better weather apps. Mostly using our local Windy[0], which shows a comparison of the GFS, ECMWF, Meteoblue, and ICON models. [0]: https://windy.com/

I think they have their own model. I've made chart and was checking forecast and comparing with real result for few weeks comparing many data sources for Prague and that was my result.

I don't consider Windy weather forecast app at all, I wanna see simple hourly forecast or simple day forecast without watching some animations and wasting my time plus it's horrible touch UI in general trying to see what will be temperature 24 hours from now through animation on phone.

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#66

Post by Markoff »

reflexco wrote: post #35
Markoff wrote: post #12

What's the point of Weather app respecting privacy if its data source (OpenWeatherMap) has horribly inaccurate data? I use Weawow and Today Weather, none of them have access to Location, actually both of them have no permissions granted at all and works fine. I don't use apps which don't allow manually selecting Location.

Chicken-and-egg problem. You would say the same about the data provider if there was no decent frontend for it.

Not really, data source is way more important than form how it is delivered. Beatiful app with horrible forecast is useless, while horrible looking app with great forecast is still acceptable. Data source is the most improtant thing at weather app, which is why I won't even bother install some app which has for instance only inaccurate Open Weather data, no matter how good the app.

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#67

Post by m000 »

jonas-w wrote: post #4

The developers [0] of this app have a whole series of different Privacy Friendly Apps, if you search for "org.secuso" on f-droid you can see them all. [0] https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/index.php

Their apps are also published on Google Play [1] for anyone who can't/won't install f-droid.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=479730765079191737...

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#69

Post by jonnycomputer »

Are there no open-source weather apps on Play Store? For US weather at least we have https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api, so it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do. Is there something about the Play Store eco-system that makes such a thing not viable or trustworthy? Seems like all you'd need is a minimalist web page doing a single http request to the api

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#70

Post by witrak »

1f60c wrote: post #42
wickedsight wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty awesome. The page with an overview of all their apps is right here: https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/english/105.php

I was curious how a foreign university obtained a .EDU domain, but apparently, foreign universities could register a .EDU domain before 2001.

Would you be so kind as to say what you mean by "foreign" in this context? I'm asking because I was sure that .com, .org, and .edu are international domains...
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