WeatherBug is not spyware & we support NOAA 10 (Score 1)

hate to rain on LordEnder's parade, but WeatherBug, which he incorrectly calls spyware (more on that in a sec) actually helps supply weather from our 7000 LIVE weather stations (as opposed to the NWS stations that are mostly at aiports and do NOT update live) to the NWS as announced in the Nov. 19th press release from the DOC- NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, AWS CONVERGENCE TECHNOLOGIES IN NEW PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP TO EXPAND USE OF WEATHERBUG DATA so, the very data that is helping the NWS give better forecasts may in some instances be helped by the data from local WeatherBug stations. The Dept. of Homeland Security through the Homeland Security Initiative already relies on WeatherBug data in times of national crisis since our stations update wind conditions live- getting 1 hour old wind direction isn't going to help us too much if God forbid there is a dispersal of something in the air. Now, if you don't like our program, hey, it's a free country. There are great weather programs out there that I've seen listed in these posts. Use them if you don't like ours. The more folks interested in live weather the better for all of us in the weather market. As for the spyware concerns- WeatherBug is not spyware. In fact, we are passionately committed to fighting the spread of these technologies because they damage the environment in which we do business. If you define adware like most as "software that serves ads based on user surfing habits" then we are NOT adware either- you actually choose a sponsor if you have the free program. If you define adware simply as "anything with ads" then, yes, like The Weather Channel's desktop program, AIM, yahoo mail etc., by that broad swatch since we serve ads, we'd be adware. Our formal spyware policy can be found at: http://www.weatherbug.com/aws/support/faq_spyware. htm where you can view our certification from TRUST and free downloads to what we believe are some of the most effective anti-spyware detection programs, as part of our commitment to end spyware. We are also a member of COAST (Coalition Against Spyware Technology- www.coast-info.org). For the record, spyware tracks websurfing 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. I am aware that occasionally some spyware detectors may list, incorrectly, certain programs. WeatherBug has been victim to this- many of you probably are thinking that Spybot or Adaware used to list us and they did- Spybot stopped about 9 months ago and Adware in early 2003 but I know that the reputation sometimes sticks, incorrect though it may be. If you have other questions, please feel free to email me directly at [e-mail]