Here is a brief exerpt from PC World magazine concerning the "Gator" component found in some (but not all) versions of Weatherbug;

"(...)The program also sends periodic reports to Gator's server about the Web sites you've visited(...)"

The full article is on the PCWorld web site at www.pcworld.com
or try this direct to page link at;

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,63345,00.asp

A personal comment: I know a hard working police officer who is a good man overall. His job is important and sometimes very stressful and dangerous. He hunts the most dangerous game on the planet: The human perpetrator of crime. When he comes home to relax he sometimes enjoys visiting the so called "adult" web sites with his computer. The presence of "Gator" on his machine means that a record of his visits are sitting on Gator's commercial "server" computer where it can possibly be retrieved by a skillful computer hacker or if nessesary by the government.

Weatherbug, like some other free downloads, is very useful and popular. I just like making sure that people know what else they may be buying in to when they install such software.

Ad Aware - when kept up to date - is a great defense. Zonealarm - when kept up to date - is also very good but like any firewall there is a chance it might not warn you if the suspect program is mimicking or hijacking the actions of a "trusted" application: example: disguise it's actions as those of the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser or use the same "ports" as the browser.
-BB-