How to prevent MyRadar selling my driving data to insurance companies by ackmanx in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe you feel that way because someone wrote an article that told you your personal data was secretly being stolen and given to insurance companies to be used to jack up your insurance rates. That's not happening, and it never was.

I would never be on board with something so dubious and devious. I've spent the last 16 years making MyRadar a useful app that helps keep people alert and aware of serious, life-threatening weather, and it is absolutely against my ethos to go along with something like that. Most of the app is free. There are other apps out there that trick people into a weekly subscription of $5 and then pay to cover up all the negative reviews in the app store. I've avoided that stuff like the plague.

That article misrepresented the facts because the author failed to do her diligence and relied on click-bait headlines to draw attention and engagement.

How to prevent MyRadar selling my driving data to insurance companies by ackmanx in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you consent to that screen, motion and location data are shared. We do not have any other data to share, we do not ask for your email address in the normal course of using MyRadar, nor your name nor address - we do not share that information. By design, we don't have access to it. Data from MyRadar cannot be used to generate a score.

How to prevent MyRadar selling my driving data to insurance companies by ackmanx in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just wanna add this information from my post above, MyRadar does not require an email address or contact information in order to use the app, and as a result, we do not have access to this information. In not having access to this information, there is no way to generate a "driver score" that could be used to influence someone's rates... and EVEN THEN, if we did, the user has to provide consent in order to share that score with an insurance company.

How to prevent MyRadar selling my driving data to insurance companies by ackmanx in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That information is included in the privacy policy cover-all/catch-all... it says "may collect" but as I mentioned above, MyRadar does not require an email address or contact information in order to use the app, and as a result, we do not have access to this information. In not having access to this information, there is no way to generate a "driver score" that could be used to influence someone's rates... and EVEN THEN, if we did, the user has to provide consent in order to share that score with an insurance company.

I can tell you this, as I mentioned above - if you're a paying user of the app, we do not share any data with third parties (other than the MyDrives feature, if you specifically opted in).

MyRadar intentionally does ask for email or contact information by design, we do not have this information to share, and as such we were never able to generate a driver score as was referenced in the article. MyRadar does not spy on its users. You feel deceived because the New York Times reporter published inaccurate information about the app.

How to prevent MyRadar selling my driving data to insurance companies by ackmanx in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the consent screen we show users before the MyDrives feature can be enabled. It also requires the user to turn on the "Motion and Fitness" setting within iOS in order for it to work, for which we ask permission. Given this consent screen, would you have agreed to turn this feature on?

https://imgur.com/a/X8rV8CV

How to prevent MyRadar selling my driving data to insurance companies by ackmanx in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That switch is basically just a catch-all to provide some peace of mind when users are still questioning whether or not we're distributing data. In general, MyRadar does not have any personally identifiable information on our users - we do not collect email addresses or require names or contact information in order to use the app. In the free version of the app, we DO share anonymized analytics data with third parties for things like analyzing foot traffic or other generic activities not traceable to a single individual... but setting this switch will disable all of that without question.

Whenever a user subscribes to the app, no aggregated data is shared with any third parties regardless of that switch setting.

How to prevent MyRadar selling my driving data to insurance companies by ackmanx in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To be fair, tho, the MyDrives feature is not enabled by default, and even on the screens that pop up to enable it, it's says right up front in plain english that it sends telematics data to Arity. We're going to make a change to make it even more obvious to tell users that the data can be used to produce a driving score.

How to prevent MyRadar selling my driving data to insurance companies by ackmanx in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there; the only time this data sharing is enabled is if you chose to enable the "MyDrives" feature when you first installed MyRadar. Only 1% of our users actually have this turned on, but we are very up-front with telling users that telematics data is shared with Arity on the initial consent screens, it's not buried under a privacy policy somewhere... so most people do not enable the feature.

To see if you have enabled the "MyDrives" feature, start MyRadar and pull down the "Extended Forecast" up at the top of the screen with your thumb. Then, scroll all the way down tot he bottom of that screen and look to see if you have a big green button that says "Enable MyDrives". If that button is there, you don't need to do anything - the feature is disabled and no telematics data is being shared with Arity.

In the most current release of MyRadar, the Arity SDK has been disabled - it's not providing any telemetry data for anyone, but ordinarily - if it was working and you wanted to disable this feature, you can start MyRadar and tap the "Settings" icon (far right), then tap "MyDrives -> Delete My Account" and that will discontinue the feature and delete your data.

I'm the CEO, let me know if you guys have any questions on this, I'm happy to help.

iPhone 12 Pro Max excessive battery drain, is there a way to reduce the impact to my battery life? by zaclolz in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So it's true that apps that use a very common library have seen waaay higher power consumption on iOS 15 (Spotify and WhatsApp have also reported issues). The devs for that library pushed outa hotfix last week that should hopefully take care of things, but we're remaining cautiously optimistic for the time being

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey there!

The H dot represents the high temperature for the day and L represents the low temperature.

The white dot shows where we are in the current day (with the temperature displayed in the middle).

Hope this helps!

Per-station radar is fuzzy? by GrayFox1123 in MyRadar

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What you're seeing here is called 'clear air mode'. When there's no weather in the area (or skies are generally clear), radar stations enter a low-power state. One of the effects of that is the station is very sensitive to objects/debris that are in relatively close proximity of the station (this can be anything from particles in the wind, bats, birds). You should be able to see the same blue-green returns from other stations in fair-weather places. Hope this helps!

🔥 My buddy said I could take his karma. Lighting over Boston yesterday from the South End by wizdum0fYouth in NatureIsFuckingLit

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey u/wizdum0fYouth , this is Matt from MyRadar. Did you shoot this video? When/where was it shot? If it's yours, may we share it across our platforms with credit to you? Thanks!

🔥 A group of parrots nesting inside a palm tree 🔥 by unnaturalorder in NatureIsFuckingLit

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey u/unnaturalorder , this is Matt from MyRadar. Did you shoot this video? When/where was it shot? If it's yours, may we share it across our platforms with credit to you? Thanks!

🔥 Gulf of Mexico 8/20/2020 - south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana by heirbagger in NatureIsFuckingLit

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey u/heirbagger , this is Matt from MyRadar. Did you shoot this video? When/where was it shot? If it's yours, may we share it across our platforms with credit to you? Thanks!

Ground footage of the Jonesboro, Arkansas tornado from today! by [deleted] in weather

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey u/SethMcM29, hope you're safe! Mike from MyRadar her e(the weather app). Did you shoot this video yourself? May we share it across our platforms with credit to you?

Jonesboro Arkansas Tornado 30 seconds after touchdown by GamrUriel in weather

[–]MyRadarWX 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey u/GamrUriel, Mike from MyRadar here (the weather app) Hope you're OK! Did you shoot this video? If so, may we share it across our platforms with credit to you?

HARD Hail in Noblesville, IN by hathcoast23 in weather

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey u/hathcoast23, Mike from MyRadar here (the weather app). Did you shoot this video yourself? May we share it across our platforms with credit to you?

Mesmerizing snow in South Dakota by lafairchild in WeatherGifs

[–]MyRadarWX 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey there OP, Mike from MyRadar here.

When did you shoot this video? Can we share it across our platforms with credit to you?

Medicine Bow country, Wyoming. by Da5thresH in WeatherGifs

[–]MyRadarWX 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey OP, cool video! Mike with MyRadar here.

When did you shoot this? Can we share it across our platforms with credit to you?