These Weather Apps Actually Care About Your PrivacyWeather apps are notoriously easy to build and extremely difficult to police. Any developer can whip up an interface from a template, add a weather API (there are loads of them), and put it up on the App Store. That “innocent” weather app can then serve you ads, track your usage, and sell your data, including your location history. Even large companies like AccuWeather and Weather Channel were found sharing private user data with the highest bidder, even when users had expressly opted out.
If you’re currently using a weather app, it’s time for a privacy check. Open the app’s page in the App Store or Play Store, go to the data section, and see what data of yours it’s using. In the best case scenario, it’s none—on the App Store, for example, you ideally want to see a “Data Not Collected” banner. The next best thing to do is to disable precise location sharing, which will mean the app can know which city you’re in, but not your exact location.
Even after that, your weather app might be too carefree with your data to be worth using. If you’re okay letting go of your current weather app, here are some privacy-first options:
Hello Weather
Hello Weather is a simple weather app, with an even simpler privacy policy (no data collection whatsoever). It's available for both iPhone and Android, and has a polished UI and colorful widgets. The free version will give you all the basics you're used to, but you can pay $12.99/year to unlock data sources, enhanced radar features, and more frequent updates.
Carrot Weather
Carrot Weather is popular because of its snarky personality and its attention to design. The free version of the app will be enough for most users (it shows an hourly forecast and basic weather details). Anything more will cost you. For example, the app's fully customizable interface and beautiful weather widgets are behind a paywall, along with the ability to change the data provider. You can get all of that by paying $39.99/year—but you won’t have to fork over your data along with your money, as the app swears to never sell your info (including location data) to a third party.
QuickWeather (Android)
QuickWeather is an open-source weather app for Android, built using open-source weather services. It uses Open-Meteo, which is an open-source weather data provider with access to national weather services from around the world. It's quick, reliable, and private.
The app itself doesn't collect any data, and while you can grant it location access for more precise information, it won't save that information anywhere. Feature wise, the app has a full-screen radar map and all the basics, like temperature, wind, humidity, and more.
Breezy Weather (Android)
Breezy Weather is an open-source weather app only available on the F-Droid App Store (which only features open-source apps). The app has a simple Material style design interface that shows the current weather, daily forecast, air quality, and detailed hourly forecast. It's all free, and it uses open-source weather services like Open-Meteo, just like QuickWeather. There are no ads, or distractions. To install this, you'll first need to install the F-Droid store itself. Then, search for Breezy Weather, and follow the instructions to get started.
Ventusky
If you’re a visual person and love looking at live weather apps, this app is for you. Ventusky (available both for iOS and Android) gives you access to beautiful live maps, without the need to expose yourself to the tumult of cable news.
The app doesn’t collect private data and the free version has useful tools like forecasts, air quality and UV index reports, and more. You can upgrade to a premium plan for $5.99/year to get extra features, like stats on humidity, air pressure, wave forecasts, and ocean currents.
Note the app’s website has the same live maps, so you can skip the app altogether if you like.
(Not Boring) Weather
If you want a bit of style along with your data privacy, check out the (Not Boring) Weather app, which takes a typographic approach, giving you basic forecast and weather information in a huge, striking font. It’s light on features, as you won’t find a live map or radar data here. The app is a part of the paid $14.99/year (Not Boring) iOS-only suite of apps, which also offers other smartly designed versions of everyday apps, including a calculator, timer, and habit tracker.
Weather apps from Apple and Google
Whether you have an iPhone or an Android, your smartphone has a solid weather app built right into it. In recent years, the Weather app on iPhone has been redesigned to provide better weather information at a glance, incorporating elements of once popular weather app Dark Sky. And Google’s weather updates are not only trustworthy, but can be found on Google’s search page as well.
Alternatively, use a weather website
Weather apps are useful, but maybe you don’t need all their fancy features. You might just want to know whether or not to bring an umbrella to work today. If so, a weather website will suit you just fine. You won’t get custom alerts or deep data-analysis, but you will preserve your privacy. Plus, these sites are completely free, and you can even add them to your phone's Home Screen, essentially turning them into mini apps.
Looking for a reliable weather websites? Consider Windy, Ventusky, and the National Weather Service.
Source:
These Weather Apps Actually Care About Your Privacy
Topic: These Weather Apps Actually Care About Your Privacy (Read 73 times)
Similar topics (5)
June 25, 2026, 10:32:03 AM