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It seems as though every day there is a new privacy-related scandal in the media. One of the latest in a string of GPS tracking controversies, has fallen in the lap of Taiwanese smart phone makers HTC, and the popular AccuWeather App. Customers have named HTC and AccuWeather in a lawsuit, which claims that the company uses the weather app to gather superfluous GPS location information, which they allegedly sell to advertising companies. The lawsuit was filed in a Seattle federal court at the end of October 2011, and the plaintiffs are reportedly seeking a class-action status for the suit.

The basis of the complaint is that AccuWeather accesses and tracks far more information than is required to provide users with an accurate weather forecast. The GPS tracking data collected from HTC’s smart phones identifies the exact GPS coordinates of the owner at any given time. Customers complain that AccuWeather only requires broad location information, collected from nearby cell towers, to provide weather information. AccuWeather is automatically integrated with the HTC EVO 3D and 4G smart phones. Users are concerned that their location data is not properly encrypted, and that they cannot uninstall or disable the invasive tracking.

As part of the lawsuit, the plaintiffs are asking for an injunction, as well as compensation for the owners of the EVO 3D and 4G smart phones. They are claiming that the invasive tracking, along with the lack of option to disable the tracking, renders their phones “unreasonably defective.” The plaintiffs assert that they would never have purchased the phones, knowing that their information would be tracked so specifically without the option to disable tracking. According to a spokesperson from HTC, the company had not had time to review the GPS tracking lawsuit, but that HTC “takes privacy issues very seriously and investigates all claims accordingly.”

Article Written by Marisa O’Connor