IBM unveiled a global weather forecasting system at CES which will gather data from a variety of sources, including smartphones, even as the company is being sued for sharing user data collected via its weather app.

The company said the Global High-Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting System will “give people the opportunity to contribute to helping improve weather forecasts globally, as it will be able to make use of pressure sensor readings sent from barometers found within smartphones if people opt-in to sharing that information”.

Meanwhile news emerged last week Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer filed a lawsuit against The Weather Channel app, developed by an IBM subsidiary, for tricking users into turning on location tracking to send them localised weather updates, but then selling this data to third parties.

“If the cost of a weather forecast will be the sacrifice of deeply private information, like precisely where we are day and night, it must be clear in advance,” Feuer said, adding that the app “elevates corporate profits over users’ privacy, misleading them into allowing their movements to be tracked, 24/7.”