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> I'm thinking, maybe controversially, centralized national payment service like this should be government-run based on my experience with Alipay which is a dig

> I'm thinking, maybe controversially, centralized national payment service like this should be government-run based on my experience with Alipay which is a digital payment service in China. After dealing with many private sector services, I think a lot of things should be government run. For instance: weather apps. Private sector ones are just a vector to track and sell your location data, and they rely on government data anyway. It'd be much better the government roll out an API and an app that uses it, so you can avoid the private sector altogether.

derelicta 2y ago
It's funny but I always had assumed all countries had their own state-owned weather services, until I found out there was no such thing in Germany.
- cubefox 2y ago
  That's not true. See https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutscher_Wetterdienst https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutscher_Wetterdienst
  - derelicta 2y ago
    Oh well! Good to know! Next time I'll use DWD instead of using those weird apps. Thanks!
    - cubefox 2y ago
      No the DWD is not allowed to provide a weather app I believe. Because it would compete with commercial apps. It offers an app which issues weather warnings though.
      - loglog 2y ago
        DWD is allowed to provide a weather app, but not for free. So they offer it for a nominal one-time fee instead.
    - jessekv 2y ago
      Windy.com gives you ECMWF. ECMWF has a much stronger model.
chneu 2y ago
That's exactly why NOAA in the US is under attack. Conservatives see $$$ potential if they privatize it.
- somedude895 2y ago
  I'm sure the NOAA is under attack because someone in the administration really wants to launch a new weather app.
  - djcannabiz 2y ago
    Granted this is from Trumps first term, but actually yeah. https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/14/politics/noaa-nominee-accuweather/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/14/politics/noaa-nominee-accuwea... "Speaking to the The Palm Beach Post at the time, Barry Myers said he supported the weather service returning to its “core mission … which is protecting other people’s lives and property” instead of spending “hundreds of millions of dollars a year, every day, producing forecasts of ‘warm and sunny.’”" Also from the same article: "He told ABC News in May 2005: “We work hard every day competing with other companies and we also have to compete with the government.”" Theres some more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lee_Myers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lee_Myers
  - const_cast 2y ago
    [dead]
  - ilirium 2y ago
    The weather app doesn't give much money. The main business sells weather and climate data B2B: agro, insurance, logistics, retail, supply chains, advertisement, medical, etc. Companies whose primary business is weather apps are small, and such areas are highly competitive.
- whimsicalism 2y ago
  i think it more has to do with wanting to cut the deficit in preparation for tax cut extension + NOAA and other science agencies are politically vulnerable in a way that medicare/ss are not
cubefox 2y ago
I believe in Germany the national weather service in fact rolled out such an app, but was then stopped by a court because this counted as unfair competition with private entities.
- praseodym 2y ago
  In The Netherlands, weather companies sued the national weather service because their new app was seen as competing with their interests, but they lost the court case (summary proceedings): https://www.rechtspraak.nl/Organisatie-en-contact/Organisatie/Rechtbanken/Rechtbank-Den-Haag/Nieuws/Paginas/KNMI-hoeft-weerapp-niet-aan-te-passen.aspx https://www.rechtspraak.nl/Organisatie-en-contact/Organisati...
- pphysch 2y ago
  > stopped by a court because this counted as unfair competition with private entities I came across this recently as well. This is one of the most insane aspects of our current zeitgeist. In a world where VC unicorns and megacorps commonly engage in dumping behavior to coerce market share, public orgs still need to walk on eggshells so they don't outcompete the "uwu smol bean" private sector. Even when they are providing what could be considered a public good or necessity, like weather info. Totally insane.
- red_trumpet 2y ago
  The app is still available, but to use all features you have to pay a couple of Euros: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.dwd.warnapp&hl=de https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.dwd.warnapp...
Loughla 2y ago
In the US, just bookmark the NOAA projection maps and your local zip on weather.gov. you don't need an app.
- Lord-Jobo 2y ago
  Hey, don't look up what the current admins plan is for NOAA
boznz 2y ago
I'm in NZ and actually prefer the Norwegian Govt weather site www.yr.no, which is about as accurate as our local one, easier to use and has no adverts.
- robocat 2y ago
  I just needed to change language to English from below the hamburger menu icon. Looks useful for Christchurch. Cheers
nostromo 2y ago
In the US your weather app is effectively government run. Your iPhone skins the government data and makes it pretty. Nobody is selling your location or information. And you can always get the data directly if you want.
vitorgrs 2y ago
100% this. My (BR) state have a weather service¹, it's amazing. What people don't realize, it's that the service isn't just made for normal people see if is gonna rain, it's that the service is fundamental for agriculture and farmers. So they have radars, frosts alerts, specifically tailored to farmers as well. It's also used to give alerts to electricity companies, etc... Their weather prediction, it's just way better than any other service. There's also national service, run by CPTEC/INMET, but they are lacking funding IMO... [1] https://simepar.br https://simepar.br
lnauta 2y ago
This is exactly what has been playing out in the Netherlands the past couple of months: the weather institute (KNMI) released their own weather app that is functionally the same (in some cases superior) as the commercial apps that want your consent to track and serve ads. The commercial parties sued KNMI, even though they use the public data provided by KNMI. Luckily they lost: https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/02/knmi-weathers-legal-app-storm-leaving-competition-in-the-cold/ https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/02/knmi-weathers-legal-app-sto... And as a bonus, there was some Streisand Effect when this was in the news, and people have been moving to the KNMI app in droves.
jajko 2y ago
Switzerland has this for weather - government data, projections up to a week in advance. Of course no ads, tons of info ie on PM2.5, pollen, avalanche risk in mountains etc.
moooo99 2y ago
> For instance: weather apps. Private sector ones are just a vector to track and sell your location data, and they rely on government data anyway. Or you do it like we do here in Germany and take the dumbest route you can imagine. We had a very well working publicly funded weather app from DWD (Deutscher Wetter Dienst). The primarily purpose of this app was to warn from extreme weather conditions, but it also included an ad free (because publicly funded) and rather accurate forecast. Then a private entity sued claiming that the DWD app also providing weather information is unfair competition for private competitors. The won in court and now the publicly funded DWD app has a paywall for a previously free feature.

derelicta 2y ago

It's funny but I always had assumed all countries had their own state-owned weather services, until I found out there was no such thing in Germany.

cubefox 2y ago
That's not true. See https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutscher_Wetterdienst https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutscher_Wetterdienst
- derelicta 2y ago
  Oh well! Good to know! Next time I'll use DWD instead of using those weird apps. Thanks!
  - cubefox 2y ago
    No the DWD is not allowed to provide a weather app I believe. Because it would compete with commercial apps. It offers an app which issues weather warnings though.
    - loglog 2y ago
      DWD is allowed to provide a weather app, but not for free. So they offer it for a nominal one-time fee instead.
  - jessekv 2y ago
    Windy.com gives you ECMWF. ECMWF has a much stronger model.

chneu 2y ago

That's exactly why NOAA in the US is under attack. Conservatives see $$$ potential if they privatize it.

somedude895 2y ago
I'm sure the NOAA is under attack because someone in the administration really wants to launch a new weather app.
- djcannabiz 2y ago
  Granted this is from Trumps first term, but actually yeah. https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/14/politics/noaa-nominee-accuweather/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/14/politics/noaa-nominee-accuwea... "Speaking to the The Palm Beach Post at the time, Barry Myers said he supported the weather service returning to its “core mission … which is protecting other people’s lives and property” instead of spending “hundreds of millions of dollars a year, every day, producing forecasts of ‘warm and sunny.’”" Also from the same article: "He told ABC News in May 2005: “We work hard every day competing with other companies and we also have to compete with the government.”" Theres some more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lee_Myers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lee_Myers
- const_cast 2y ago
  [dead]
- ilirium 2y ago
  The weather app doesn't give much money. The main business sells weather and climate data B2B: agro, insurance, logistics, retail, supply chains, advertisement, medical, etc. Companies whose primary business is weather apps are small, and such areas are highly competitive.
whimsicalism 2y ago
i think it more has to do with wanting to cut the deficit in preparation for tax cut extension + NOAA and other science agencies are politically vulnerable in a way that medicare/ss are not

cubefox 2y ago

I believe in Germany the national weather service in fact rolled out such an app, but was then stopped by a court because this counted as unfair competition with private entities.

praseodym 2y ago
In The Netherlands, weather companies sued the national weather service because their new app was seen as competing with their interests, but they lost the court case (summary proceedings): https://www.rechtspraak.nl/Organisatie-en-contact/Organisatie/Rechtbanken/Rechtbank-Den-Haag/Nieuws/Paginas/KNMI-hoeft-weerapp-niet-aan-te-passen.aspx https://www.rechtspraak.nl/Organisatie-en-contact/Organisati...
pphysch 2y ago
> stopped by a court because this counted as unfair competition with private entities I came across this recently as well. This is one of the most insane aspects of our current zeitgeist. In a world where VC unicorns and megacorps commonly engage in dumping behavior to coerce market share, public orgs still need to walk on eggshells so they don't outcompete the "uwu smol bean" private sector. Even when they are providing what could be considered a public good or necessity, like weather info. Totally insane.
red_trumpet 2y ago
The app is still available, but to use all features you have to pay a couple of Euros: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.dwd.warnapp&hl=de https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.dwd.warnapp...

Loughla 2y ago

In the US, just bookmark the NOAA projection maps and your local zip on weather.gov. you don't need an app.

Lord-Jobo 2y ago
Hey, don't look up what the current admins plan is for NOAA

boznz 2y ago

I'm in NZ and actually prefer the Norwegian Govt weather site www.yr.no, which is about as accurate as our local one, easier to use and has no adverts.

robocat 2y ago
I just needed to change language to English from below the hamburger menu icon. Looks useful for Christchurch. Cheers

nostromo 2y ago

In the US your weather app is effectively government run. Your iPhone skins the government data and makes it pretty. Nobody is selling your location or information. And you can always get the data directly if you want.

vitorgrs 2y ago

100% this. My (BR) state have a weather service¹, it's amazing. What people don't realize, it's that the service isn't just made for normal people see if is gonna rain, it's that the service is fundamental for agriculture and farmers. So they have radars, frosts alerts, specifically tailored to farmers as well. It's also used to give alerts to electricity companies, etc... Their weather prediction, it's just way better than any other service. There's also national service, run by CPTEC/INMET, but they are lacking funding IMO... [1] https://simepar.br https://simepar.br

lnauta 2y ago

This is exactly what has been playing out in the Netherlands the past couple of months: the weather institute (KNMI) released their own weather app that is functionally the same (in some cases superior) as the commercial apps that want your consent to track and serve ads. The commercial parties sued KNMI, even though they use the public data provided by KNMI. Luckily they lost: https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/02/knmi-weathers-legal-app-storm-leaving-competition-in-the-cold/ https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/02/knmi-weathers-legal-app-sto... And as a bonus, there was some Streisand Effect when this was in the news, and people have been moving to the KNMI app in droves.

jajko 2y ago

Switzerland has this for weather - government data, projections up to a week in advance. Of course no ads, tons of info ie on PM2.5, pollen, avalanche risk in mountains etc.

moooo99 2y ago

> For instance: weather apps. Private sector ones are just a vector to track and sell your location data, and they rely on government data anyway. Or you do it like we do here in Germany and take the dumbest route you can imagine. We had a very well working publicly funded weather app from DWD (Deutscher Wetter Dienst). The primarily purpose of this app was to warn from extreme weather conditions, but it also included an ad free (because publicly funded) and rather accurate forecast. Then a private entity sued claiming that the DWD app also providing weather information is unfair competition for private competitors. The won in court and now the publicly funded DWD app has a paywall for a previously free feature.