How does public_location work

Tempest Owners
1

In the latest android app you now have the option of setting a public location to obfuscate your actual station location. I have set this public_location about 200 m away from the actual station location and saved the settings in the app, but it doesn’t appear to be working as expected. For example, if I submit an unauthenticated station meta data API request:

https://swd.weatherflow.com/swd/rest/stations/4968?api_key=20c70eae-e62f-4d3b-b3a4-8586e90f3ac8

I’d expect to see the public location as per the app release notes: App release: iOS 2.23 and Android v2.15. However instead I see the actual station location. What am I doing wrong, or is there a bug in the app?

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2

Peter,

While the phone applications have been update, the back-end server applications have not been updated at this time. David has informed me that the server team is working on this and I expect it to be in place when time permits.

5 Likes
3

Cool! Thanks for the info @GaryFunk

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4

Is the Public Location the only location available now or is the actual station location available to more than just WeatherFlow?

5

It looks like the servers have recently been updated to handle the public location. I imagine the way it now works is that for any station you do not own, you will only ever see the public location. For every station you do own, if you make an authorised request you will also see the actual station location. I suspect Weather Flow store both the actual station location and the public location.

6

The public location is now reported in latitude and longitude. Nothing changed with the variable names.

Public name now replaces station_name.

7

So I should be relatively safe to put in the actual coordinates of my mobile station for WeatherFlow and not change the public ones when I move my station. I don’t really want just anyone knowing when I’m gone.

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8

How would anyone when you are gone by looking at the WeatherFlow data?

9

Correct. Also know, permanent siting in a fixed location allows applied machine learning to analyze data over time and ultimately produce a much better forecast for your location. Moving your station around makes that process more difficult. Time for a second unit. :wink:

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10

This is for my second unit. If I’m in cellular or Wi-Fi range at a camp site I plan on using my tablet as a bridge to the internet. I’ll update the actual location so WF knows it moved but others won’t know I’m gone based on seeing my station move on the map.

11

Have you considered making that station private? Is there any advantage of having it public?

12

Yes: citizen science !

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13

I did consider making it private but I want to be able to share a link to the data with my family & friends without giving them login information. If my station looks like it is in one place to the public that is fine since my family & friends will know the real location while, at the same time WF can use the correct location data for calibration and what ever else they want to use it for.

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14

That’s an informative answer. Thank you for replying.