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Foursquare Labs, Inc. Privacy Policy

Last Updated: December 20, 2010

Foursquare Labs, Inc. (“foursquare”) knows that you take your privacy seriously.  We do, too.  We are committed to giving you transparency of our privacy practices and control over your data in connection with foursquare’s Service (as defined in foursquare’s Terms of Service (currently located at http://foursquare.com/legal/terms)). To that end, in addition to this Privacy Policy, we have developed this privacy policy and the following other documents that complement this policy, all of which describe the data we collect, how we use it, with whom we share it, and your choices regarding your data:

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.

What Personal Information Does Foursquare Collect

  • 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, email address, phone number, birthday, Twitter and/or Facebook usernames, use information regarding the use of our Service, and browser information. The Personal Information you provide is used for such purposes as allowing you to set up a user account and profile that can be used to interact with other users through the Service, 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 Services, and to develop new tools for the community.
  • Information Collected Automatically: 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.  We treat this data as non-Personal Information, except where we are required to do otherwise under applicable law.  Foursquare only uses this data in aggregate form. We may provide aggregate information to our partners about how our customers, collectively, use our site, so that our partners may also understand how often people use their services and our Service.

How is My Information Shared? 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. The default user settings for all data about you that is visible to others are available here, together with information on how to change the default user settings, where applicable.

  • Friends: Your “friends” can see the location and time of each of your check-ins, first name and last initial, email, phone number, photo, hometown, mayorships and badges, links to your Twitter and Facebook accounts (if you have connected those accounts to your foursquare account), a list of your friends, tips you write, and items on your To-Do list. Privacy Grid.
  • 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.

Foursquare Features

The foursquare service also has the following features that may allow you to share your information with others.  For each of these features, the information available to friends and others, our default user settings, and how to alter the default settings, is available on the Privacy Grid.  Please remember that if you choose to provide personal information using certain features of the Service, that information 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.

Sharing with Partners, in connection with business transfers, and for the protection of foursquare and others:

  • Our Partners: In addition to the data sharing described above, 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.
  • Business Transfers: If foursquare or substantially all of its assets are 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.
  • Protection of foursquare and Others: We may release Personal Information when we believe in good faith that release is necessary to comply with the law, including laws outside your country of residence; 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 (including outside of your country of residence) for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Adding Your Home Address As A Venue: 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 available to others and may be published by third parties without our control. To request removal of a venue from the foursquare database (including your home address) please email us at privacy@foursquare.com

Email Communications: If you do not want to receive commercial 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. 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. 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.

What About Cookies and Similar Technologies? 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 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.

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. For information about how to opt out of receiving behavioral advertisements from our advertising partners, click here.

Foursquare uses Google Analytics to better understand who is using the Service, and how people are using it. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect information such as time of visit, pages visited, time spent on each page of the website, IP address, and type of operating system used. We use this information to improve the Service and make it appealing to as many users as possible. Google has developed a browser plugin to allow you to opt-out of Google Analytics’ tracking software.

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.

International Users

If you are located outside of the United States, please note that this site is hosted on our computer servers in the United States. Therefore, your information may be processed and stored in the United States. As a result, the governments, courts, or law enforcement or regulatory agencies may be able to obtain disclosure of your information through laws applicable in the United States. Your use of this site or submission of any Personal Information will therefore constitute your consent to the transfer of your Personal Information outside of your home country.

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. You can access this information on the foursquare website by visiting the user settings page (except usage information, which can be accessed in the “History” tab). This list will change as our Service changes.

  • Password
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Other User profile information (for example, home city, photo)
  • Usage information (for example, check-in history)

How Do I Delete My Account? Should you ever decide to delete your foursquare account, you may do so by clicking on the "delete account" link on your account settings page. If you terminate your account, your profile, including your check-in history, badges you received, your User Submissions (as defined in the foursquare’s Terms of Service) 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.

Will There Be 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.

What If I Have 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.

Will My Information Be Transferred To Another Country? Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities, and, by using the Service, you consent to the transfer of information to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may provide for different data protection rules than in your country.