Seemingly undaunted by the backlash that fell upon Instagram for its privacy policy and terms of service revisions, Foursquare has now joined the party and revised its privacy policy as well.
Although, in this matter, there shouldn’t be too much subsequent controversy.
For starters, Foursquare will now require users to reveal their full name with each check-in. Nothing too groundbreaking there. Other changes include:
- When you check in at a location, it’s like telling a friend where you are. Your check ins are ONLY shared with others when you proactively decide to “check in” to tell Foursquare you’re at a particular location.
- A business owner (say, a restaurant manager) can see their top customers on Foursquare, just as they could identify the people who walk through their door most often.
- Foursquare can tell you who is at a location (we call this ‘Here Now’), but we make the visibility match what happens in the real world:
- You always can see where your friends are if they’ve checked in, just like if they’d texted you to let you know.
- We also give you a glimpse into which other Foursquare users are currently checked in at nearby locations. Since we realize some folks may not want to appear on this “Here Now” list, you can opt out of this feature on your account settings.
The changes it will take effect January 28th, 2013. To review the full announcement on the Foursquare webpage, click here.
