This is actually a really great feature. Dark Sky first started using crowdsourced barometric pressure readings to provide rain warnings. It provided a 10-minute warning for rain that was incredibly accurate. Living in NY, I got a 10-minute notification because someone 10-minutes southwest of me just got rained on.
Apple bought Dark Sky a couple years ago, and integrated the feature into the Weather app. The data is anonymized (hashed, encrypted, and relayed), so now it’s completely private.
It uses more power by leaving location services and barometric readings on persistently, but you can turn it on and off when you need it. It’s great for cyclists, runners, and hikers.
That’s actually a pretty nifty idea. Too bad we live in a privacy nightmare and can’t trust others.
Perhaps this would be a good use for other connected devices like smart power meters.
It’s a private feature in the Weather app on iPhone.
To understand and improve the Weather app, Apple collects limited information about the first time you launch the app in a day. This information is not linked to your identity. If you allow Weather to access your location, your location will be sent to Apple to provide relevant weather forecasts.
You understand the photo is not from the default iPhone weather app, but from a completely separate app and service with a separate privacy policy “The weather channel”, right?
I do. That’s why I specified that same feature is private in the Weather app.
There’s no mention of barometer/fitness permission on Apple’s page, just location?
Why is the barometer on the phone handled by the fitness shit? If this is legit the reason it wants health and fitness permissions, the sensors should just have their own permission category, IMO. Or you know, just have everything piecemeal so the app only uses what it actually needs and gets nothing more.
The barometer is one sensor in a package of sensors that includes the health and fitness-oriented sensors. The permission grants access to the sensor package.
I understand that; I just question why. What’s the barometer used for in the context of health and fitness? Blood pressure?
It uses the barometer to detect elevation changes. Like walking up stairs indoors without GPS signal.
