The data we collect powers our apps and location platform, and is shared with partners via analytics, audiences, data solutions, measurement, and developer tools.

Some examples of how the data is used in our products include aggregated foot traffic trends, customized advertising, insights into advertising effectiveness, improved points of interest data, and general location capabilities for marketers and developers.

App developers cannot use Foursquare’s contextual-aware Pilgrim SDK technology unless consumers genuinely benefit from the collection of location data.

Benefits may include:

A

powering local or personalized content,

B

personal lifelogs and geo-features, and

C

providing local discounts, offers or direct payments based on confirming visits, answering surveys and the like.

People should benefit from having location data collected, and our tech is not available to app developers who don’t provide these benefits.

We know that location data is some of the most sensitive data out there.

That’s why consumers must be in control. We believe mobile apps that want to collect location data need to ask permission from consumers in plain English, and that consent should not be buried within terms and conditions that only a few people read. Alerts should be clear and identify use cases.

To opt-out of sharing your location data with Foursquare, please go to Privacy Settings in your Foursquare app.

Companies should be required to apply privacy-protecting measures to data uses.

At Foursquare, we do everything we can to ensure that neither data science nor our products disadvantage or allow for the discrimination of consumers. We run important decisions through a review by our Ethics Committee, and our contracts include a clause on ethical use of location data.

We believe data is a privilege and we act accordingly.

We hold ourselves and our partners to a high standard, but we cannot speak for the entire industry.

We believe Congress must set limits to prevent bad behavior.

We are advocates for federal regulation that will protect people from unethical, unfair or opaque practices.

We believe location technology can be a tool to serve the greater good—but regulation needs to help raise the bar and protect consumer rights.

Whenever we can, we want to use plain language: It is important to us to communicate clearly with consumers. We hope our privacy policy is easy to understand and we are always willing to answer questions about it.

Foursquare's Privacy Policy

Cookies Policy

Preserving privacy can be complicated—it is for us, and it is for you. But it is our responsibility to do so, and we are here to help.

If you have any questions about how Foursquare handles privacy, please reach out to privacy@foursquare.com. If you would like to download your data via our apps, please log in to your account and visit Privacy Settings.

If you would prefer to opt out of all location-based data collection by Foursquare, please delete your account.