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Foursquare LABS, inc. Privacy Policy

Foursquare Labs, Inc. (“Foursquare”) knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously. Please read the following to learn more about our privacy policy. By visiting or using the Foursquare website, Foursquare’s services and applications, and any other linked pages, features, or content offered from time to time by Foursquare in connection therewith (collectively, the "Service"), you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Privacy Policy.

We are committed to giving you transparency of our privacy practices and control over your data. To that end, in addition to this Privacy Policy, please find:

You may also email us with any privacy-related questions you have at privacy@foursquare.com.

What Does This Privacy Policy Cover?

This Privacy Policy covers Foursquare’s treatment of personally identifiable information ("Personal Information") and other data that Foursquare gathers when you are accessing Foursquare’s Service. This policy does not apply to the practices of companies that Foursquare does not own or control, or to individuals that Foursquare does not employ or manage. In addition, the Service contains links to outside sources, both ones we have added ourselves and ones that members have submitted. While we attempt to provide links only to those sites that share our respect for your privacy, we cannot take responsibility for the content or privacy policies of those sites. We encourage you to carefully review the privacy policies of any web sites you visit and the third party applications you use.

What Personal Information Does Foursquare Collect?

The information we gather from users enables us to personalize and improve our services and to allow our users to set up a user account and profile that can be used to interact with other users through the Service. In connection with the Service, we request and display some Personal Information to other users and visitors of the Service, which allows users to identify each other. We collect the following types of information from our users.

Personal Information You Provide to Us:

We receive and store any information you enter on our Service or provide to us in any other way. The types of Personal Information collected may include your name, user name, address, email address, phone number, birthday, use information and browser information. The Personal Information you provide is used for such purposes as allowing you to interact with other users, improving the content of the Service, customizing the advertising and content you see, and communicating with you about specials and new features. We may also draw upon this Personal Information in order to adapt the services of our community to your needs, to research the effectiveness of our network, and to develop new tools for the community.

Personal Information Collected Automatically:

    • We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with our Service or services. When you use the Service, Foursquare automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser or mobile platform including your location, IP address, cookie information, and the page you requested.
    • Generally, our service automatically collects usage information, such as the numbers and frequency of visitors to our site and its components and users who use our mobile application, similar to TV ratings that indicate how many people watched a particular show. Foursquare only uses this data in aggregate form, that is, as a statistical measure, and not in a manner that would identify you personally. This type of aggregate data enables us to figure out how often users use parts of the Service or services so that we can make the Service appealing to as many customers as possible, and improve those services. As part of this use of information, we may provide aggregate information to our partners about how our customers, collectively, use our site. We share this type of statistical data so that our partners also understand how often people use their services and our Service, so that they, too, may provide you with an optimal online experience. Again, Foursquare never discloses aggregate information to a partner in a manner that would identify you personally.

Email Communications:

We may receive a confirmation when you open an email from Foursquare if your computer supports this type of program. Foursquare uses this confirmation to help us make emails more interesting and helpful and improve our service. If you do not want to receive email or other mail from us, please indicate your preference during the registration process or by making a modification on your account settings page or through the ‘settings’ tab on our website once you’re logged into the service.

What About Cookies?

    • Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and tell us how and when pages in our site are visited and by how many people. Foursquare cookies do not collect Personal Information, and we do not combine the general information collected through cookies with other Personal Information to tell us who you are or what your screen name or email address is.
    • Most browsers have an option for turning off the cookie feature, which will prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, as well as (depending on the sophistication of your browser software) allowing you to decide on acceptance of each new cookie in a variety of ways. We strongly recommend that you leave the cookies activated, however, because cookies enable you to take advantage of some of our Service’s most attractive features.
    • Ads appearing on the Service may be delivered to users by our advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by Foursquare and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

SHARING OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Personal Information about our users is an integral part of our business. We neither rent nor sell your Personal Information to anyone. Foursquare may share your Personal Information only as described below.

Use of the Service: The Service is primarily designed to help you share information, including your location, with others. This not only includes the information that you provide directly to Foursquare, but also information that you broadcast to third party services using the Service. You can control your information through your privacy settings accessible through the ‘settings’ tab on our website once you’re logged into the Service.

Information you submit to the Service will be available to users of the Service in accordance with the selected privacy settings. Your name and profile picture thumbnail will be available in search results across the Service network and those limited pieces of information may be made available to third party search engines. This is primarily so your friends can find you and send a friend request. People who see your name in searches, however, will not be able to access all of your information (e.g., check-in history, phone number or e-mail address) unless they have a relationship to you (friends etc.) that allows such access based on your privacy settings.

Please remember that if you choose to provide personal information using certain features of the Service, that information is governed by the privacy settings of those particular features and, unless selected otherwise, may be available to the wider Foursquare community or may be published on the Foursquare website, which is subject to indexing by third party search engines. Individuals reading this information may use or disclose it to other individuals or entities without our control and without your knowledge. Therefore, we urge you to think carefully about including any specific information you may deem private in Shouts or Tips or other user-inputted content that you create in the Service (location or otherwise).

While the Service does allow you to note your location at restaurants, bars, stores (and so on) throughout your community, at no time does Foursquare ask you to provide your home address for use as a venue in the Service database. You should be aware that if you or your friends add your home as a new venue in the Service database and that information is published on the Service (for example, via a user checking in to that home venue), that information may be published by third parties without our control. To request removal of a venue from the Foursquare database, please email us at privacy@foursquare.com.

The Service allows you to connect with certain third party services (e.g., Twitter, Facebook and other similar services). When you broadcast information to such third party services, such information is no longer under the control of Foursquare and is subject to the terms of use and privacy policies of such third parties. Additionally, certain Personal Information may be made available to third party developers using our Application Programming Interface (“API”) if you or your ‘friend’ use third party applications developed by such third party developers. Use of third party applications developed using our API are subject to the terms of use and privacy policies of such third party developers. You should be aware that such third party applications may expose user locations in broad and creative ways and some third party services may permit you to make your information publicly available and accessible by everyone on the Internet. You can control whether your Foursquare activity is broadcast to third parties through your privacy settings or by not using a third party’s service or application.

Businesses We Do Not Control: We enter into relationships with a variety of businesses and work closely with them. In certain situations, these businesses sell items or provide promotions to you through Foursquare’s Service. In other situations, Foursquare provides services, or sells products jointly with these businesses. You can easily recognize when one of these businesses is associated with your transaction, and we will share your Personal Information that is related to such transactions with that business, unless you have elected not to be solicited by marketing partners during the registration process or through the account settings page.

Agents: We employ other companies and people to perform tasks on our behalf and need to share your information with them to provide products or services to you. Unless we tell you differently, Foursquare’s agents do not have any right to use Personal Information we share with them beyond what is necessary to assist us. You hereby consent to our sharing of Personal Information for the above purposes.

User profiles: User profile information including user name, Twitter account name, Facebook account name, and other information you enter may be displayed to other users to facilitate user interaction within the Service. Users’ email addresses and phone numbers will not be directly revealed to other users by Foursquare, except when the user is "connected" to another user as a Friend and chooses to email them from within the Service or chooses to display their email address and phone number on their profile page through the privacy settings.

Communication in response to User Submissions: As part of the Service, you will receive foursquare transactional email and other communication relating to your User Submissions. You acknowledge and agree that by posting such User Submissions, Foursquare may send you email and other communication that it determines in its sole discretion relate to your User Submissions. Foursquare also will use your email to send you updates on when your Foursquare friends check-in, when you receive a new friend request, and a Foursquare newsletter – however, you can opt out of all of these communications on your account settings page.

Promotional Offers: As part of the Service you may be exposed to offers from Foursquare on behalf of other businesses. However, in connection with such offers we do not give the other business your name, address, or email address.

Invitations: When you invite someone to join the Foursquare community, please be aware that we will disclose your real name, as an invitation containing your name will be sent to the email address of the person you wish to invite. This information is necessary to make sure your invitee knows who has contacted them. To build a community based on trust and empathy, we feel this disclosure is necessary.

Business Transfers: In some cases, we may choose to buy or sell assets. In these types of transactions, user information is typically one of the business assets that is transferred. Moreover, if Foursquare, or substantially all of its assets were acquired, or in the unlikely event that Foursquare goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of Foursquare may continue to use your Personal Information as set forth in this policy.

Protection of Foursquare and Others: We may release Personal Information when we believe in good faith that release is necessary to comply with that law; enforce or apply our conditions of use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Foursquare, our employees, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

With Your Consent: Except as set forth above, you will be notified when your Personal Information may be shared with third parties, and will be able to prevent the sharing of this information.

Non-Private or Non-Personal Information: For clarity, we may share or disclose your non-private, aggregated or otherwise non-personal information, such as the number of users who checked in at a particular location (even if only one did).

Is Personal Information About me Secure?

Your Foursquare account Personal Information is protected by a password for your privacy and security. You need to prevent unauthorized access to your account and Personal Information by selecting and protecting your password appropriately and limiting access to your computer and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your account.

Foursquare endeavors to safeguard user information to ensure that user account information is kept private. However, Foursquare cannot guarantee the security of user account information. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors, may compromise the security of user information at any time.

The Service may contain links to other sites. Foursquare is not responsible for the privacy policies and/or practices on other sites. When linking to another site you should read the privacy policy stated on that site. This Privacy Policy only governs information collected on the Service.

what personal information can i access?

Foursquare allows you to access the following information about you for the purpose of viewing, and in certain situations, updating that information. This list will change as our Service changes.

  • Username and password
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Other User profile information (e.g., home city, photo)
  • Usage information (e.g., check-in history)

DELETING YOUR ACCOUNT

Should you ever decide to delete your Foursquare account, you may do so by contacting Foursquare at privacy@foursquare.com, or by clicking on the “delete account” link on your account settings page. If you terminate your account, your profile, including any messages in your inbox and any promotional offers you received, will be removed from the site and deleted from Foursquare’s servers. Because of the way we maintain Foursquare, such deletion may not be immediate, and residual copies of your profile information or posts may remain on backup media for up to ninety (90) days.

What Choices Do I Have?

    • As stated previously, you can adjust your account settings to control the amount of information you share with users of the Service, even though some settings may be needed to take advantage of certain Foursquare features.
    • You are able to add or update certain information on pages, such as those listed in the “What Personal Information Can I Access” section above. When you update information, however, we may maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our records.
    • You delete your account via your account settings page. Please note that Foursquare will need to verify that you have the authority to delete the account, and some information may remain in our records after deletion of your account.
    • If you do not wish to receive email or other mail from us, please indicate your preference during the registration process or by making a modification on your account settings page. Please note that if you do not want to receive legal notices from us, such as this Privacy Policy, those legal notices will still govern your use of the Foursquare Service, and you are responsible for reviewing such legal notices for changes.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Foursquare may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. Use of information we collect now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is used. If we make material changes in the way we use Personal Information, we will notify you by posting an announcement on our Service or sending you an email. Users are bound by any changes to the Privacy Policy when he or she uses the Service after such changes have been first posted.

Questions or Concerns

If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy using the Service, please send a detailed message to: privacy@foursquare.com. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns.

Effective Date: August 17, 2010