Foursquare To Start Using Full Names, Sharing More Of Your Data With Venues From January 28, According To New Privacy Policy

Foursquare — which this year passed its three-millionth check-in, added 15 million more users to its network, and in October kicked off a new chapter as a stronger competitor to Yelp with more local information and reviews — is now updating its privacy policy to keep up. It has been sending out an email to its users informing them that as of January 28, it will add in two new items that will reveal more user data than before: the use of full names and the ability for businesses to access longer data logs for individuals. And, perhaps taking a cue from all the drama around Instagram and Facebook’s recent changes to their terms of service, the location-based social information app did two other things: it picked the Saturday evening between Christmas and New Years (when we’re all still full of good cheer) to tell users about it (mine came into my inbox at 4.37AM London time, although Phandroid seems to have noticed it earlier); and it is once again pointing users to its simplified explanation of its terms — called Privacy 101?– to help explain it. Both of the changes are a signal of how Foursquare is beefing up its big data offering: more information being shared with more people — and importantly, businesses as part of Foursquare’s local-commerce dashboard play. The explanations in the email, printed in full below, are a little more nuanced: “Full names.” Foursquare says that from the end of January, users’ full names (not necessarily real names, though) will show up with each of your check-ins, available for all to see. Foursquare implies that it’s making the change to be less confusing: it’s been providing full names already, which come up when you search for your friends on the Foursquare network, but “when you click through to their profile page you don?t see their last name.” These have prompted comments from users saying this is confusing. But, important to note here that Foursquare makes a point of noting “full names” in quotes. If you don’t want your full name on the network, it notes that you can update your own settings to set whatever “full name” you want. Extended user data for businesses. Again, here Foursquare is couching the change as a move for more practical use: it says that businesses in the past were only able to view the last three hours of

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