Your PWS info on weatherwatch.co.nz

[gabba]

Just wondering what everyone thought about this:

WeatherWatch.co.nz adds over 1000 forecasts to website! | WeatherWatch.co.nz

Seems Weatherwatch are using info provided  by PWS owners to Weather Underground to display on their website? (find your location and look for the current conditions panel)

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[JennyLeez]

My initial reaction............ I dont remember giving them permission to use my station data!!!@!!!!

They are using my Gisborne Weather station for Gisborne for a start and I have no doubt when I look up the rest of my stations they will also be there.

They are piggy backing off Weather Underground. The forecasts are weather undergrounds. The layout maybe theirs but the rest is leeched.....   

They are advising they are providing it free. Funny funny funny, it is not their data to be charging for to start with. It may be free to them but it costs us station owners heaps.

As with fielding weather, I shall post on their web site but I will do it tomorrow when I cool down...lol

[gabba]

I guess I signed up to WU on the condition that they share my data with whom they see fit - at least they intend to make a profit out of my data, so if I was bothered enough to go back and read the T's and C's I'm sure I would find that

However it is a bit annoying that a local site is reposting my data, with attribution to the distributor, and not the provider of the data (Kinda like saying "Thriller" was written and performed by Sony Entertainment)

WW say they are working on getting the proper link through to the source data but I can't see that being high on the priority list.

The other part that annoys me is that the data is put forward as "Current Conditions" however as PWS owners we all know that the data that comes out of our PWS is only approximate. There are a number of compromises that are made in the siting of each station (eg mine is a combined sensor suite that sits on top of a metal roof, shaded from the prevailing wind by a tree). Readings are approximate at best and unique to my site. There are other weather stations in my suburb that have completely different readings because of where they are sited. This isn't mentioned anywhere on the WW site.

I'm really only left with one option and that is to stop my data going to WU. At least when the MetService implemented their version, it was opt in with acknowledgement of source, rather than opt out and no source acknowledgement

[Wolfie33]

I have had varying thoughts on this, finally settling on not so effing happy. So I'm with you guys.

On the one hand, they are are just providing another outlet for what is already freely available on the interweb.
However, on the other fist, which ever way you look at it, there reeks a fairly bad odour!

WW is a commercial operation.
WU sold out to The Weather Company which I now see is an IBM company!
It would seem commercial interests have overridden moral considerations, an asset is something they can use any way they see fit.

If similar "partnerships" are occurring around the world, I can see a good number of contributing stations pulling the plug.

[iomkiwi]

When did metservice start acknowledging the source?

I don't see no acknowledgement or links......

(and that's why you don't see my site there..

[Wolfie33]

Snap & ditto iomkiwi!!

[gabba]

I was fairly sure when they started it up, there were links (the site name was the link from memory). It looks like they are not doing that now.

At least they don't hide that it's PWS info, and put a reasonable disclaimer on it.

[JennyLeez]

What bugs me:
To quote their web site:

WeatherWatch.co.nz is proud to announce our website now carries more than 1000 forecast locations, all free for you to access across New Zealand.

While the New Zealand Government puts your taxes into not one but now two weather agencies, NIWA and MetService, combined they both only display about 100 public forecast locations - but with the power of WeatherWatch.co.nz and global giant Wundergound our website and free app now display 10 day forecasts for well over 1000 towns and communities in New Zealand.

First sentence should read:
our website now leeches more than 1000 forecast locations

Second paragraph:
'but with the power of WeatherWatch.co.nz' - what power??
It should read:
but with the leeching of WeatherWatch.co.nz

'free app' !!!!!!!!
I would like to see them charge for a service they are leeching....lol

I quite frankly can not see the point. WU already displays all their members data. They also already have an app.

The metservice did the same thing.
We were uploading to Metservice UK. Then low and behold we all appeared on the NZ Metservice Map. None of us gave permission for this either.

[Wolfie33]

I have been trying to find WU's T&C's or policy regarding their data sharing. Diddly squat!

All I have found is their general Terms of Use / Privacy stuff, dumped it into a word doc.
10 pages of Personal Privacy waffle, & 7 pages of what we as members can & can not do, & the penalties for non compliance.
Nothing about what they can or can't do with our data, as far as I can see.
Mind you it is all so mind numbingly boring, I may have missed the bits I'm trying to find.

Submitted a general query to WU help/support.

Cheers

[Weather Display]

if you have that much of a concern about your wunderground data being used in this way, then stop sending your data to wunderground ?

[gabba]

Done in the meantime anyway. WU only gave me 2 referrals in the last 12 months, so I don't think I'll miss them. I may even get more people visiting my site, since they won't go to WU for my info

[iomkiwi]

That's probably because they don't provide a link to your site anymore......
(or it's blooody impossible to find it)