Foursquare Will Display Users' Full Names By Default

Location services can be useful and fun, but, depending on how paranoid ("cautious") you are, you might already dislike the idea of a social-network dashboard keeping track of where you are at a given moment. After all, bad guys can use computers, too. Now, Foursquare may up your level of caution just a bit: CNET reports that "Beginning January 28, 2013, users' 'full names' will be displayed across the check-in service and venue owners will have increased access to users' check-in data, the company announced in an e-mail sent to users late last night." Users, though, "will still have control of the name displayed by altering their 'full name' in their settings," and can opt out of the increased flow of data to business owners. For users' sake, I hope Foursquare doesn't go in for the "real names" fetish to the extent that both Google and Facebook have.

Comments

Ut oh

[Anonymous Coward]

Know they'll know my last name is Coward!!!

-- Anonymous

They are mentally ill.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's bad enough with fully, easily traceable public nicknames. The Internet has become something that I no longer want to have anything to do with. And yet there is no way to escape all this madness short of moving out to some cabin in the woods and living like a survivalist, which I really don't want.

You really try to reach out to people, but it's always in through one ear and out the other. They don't get it. They think you are crazy. It's maddening.

Even this site where I post this on, Slashdot, calls me an "Anonymous Coward" in an attempt to guilt-trip me into registering and logging in for anyone to track all my posts and violate my privacy.

Re:They are mentally ill.

[Frosty Piss]

The Internet has become something that I no longer want to have anything to do with.

Do you want the Intertubes all locked up? Or do you want them "open"?

Because with "open" comes responsibility. YOU put stuff about YOU on a public network, YOU give private data to companies and "agree" to their "privacy" policy.

In other words YOU are in the driver's seat about how much people on the Intertubes know about YOU.

So take some responsibility. Your name and consumer purchasing data didn't "just show up" in some huge database for sale to the highest bidder, in fact at some point YOU checked a box or scrolled through a EULA, and clicked "continue".

This is a side effect of being a "consumer" in a "consumer society".

Never understood the appeal of that app

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole idea of "checking in" was ridiculous to me in the first place. It immediately reminded me of the cartoon where the clever mice give the cat a bell as a gift. Why should anybody be surprised if they want to amp up the level of stupidity an extra notch?

Re:Never understood the appeal of that app

[alen]

but if you are 22 or so years old how else are you going to show the world how cool you are?

i mean everyone cares about everything you do every day?

"Full Names" seem to be the in thing

[AbRASiON]

Google Plus, Facebook, Foursquare - a lot of services are really pushing the boundaries at the moment. I suspect the social media backlash is going to begin pretty damn soon.

On a similar, on topic note: Did anyone who does sign in to youtube recently get 'tricked' by a box popping up, offering them the option to change their first / last name on the service? I got it and thought, "fantastic! I can finally login with a name other than my gmail mail alias" and attempted setting up a different name. BAM - it made me a Google+ profile which I didn't want.
Upon removing the profile, my videos are now tied to my "Google+ youtube account" - so anything I uploaded, any favourites, any comments are not available unless I re-create the account.

Heavy handed indeed and from the musings on the web, I'd say I'm not the only one who got stung by this.

Re:"Full Names" seem to be the in thing

[undeadbill]

Dunno why this was modded down. The *ONLY* ISP or hosting service operator in US history to challenge a national security letter was Nick Merrill. Ever.

A single national security letter can dragnet in thousands of user accounts. Simply receiving one means that you are already bound to secrecy by the letter itself with the very real threat of 10 years in jail. Nick had to fight in a secret court hearing just to have the right to have an attorney represent him, and then again to publicly state that he received a letter. He still cannot discuss any of what was requested, or he goes to prison for a very long time.

They are not limited to one letter per user per item- they are not required to be specific at all. That means every major service out there has been handing out your info to the feds. Usually, this is just usernames and other log data. If your full name is included, it makes it that much easier to keep tabs on you. And, yes, people are being investigated and rounded up based on this kind of data.

Look up the Calyx Institute or Nick Merrill on YouTube. Fascinating stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkvGK60MSOk

Re:Great, so employees can start harassing...

[BitZtream]

So did you promptly post another review pointing out what the manager did and how you recommend no one visit that store ever?

That would have been about the best thing you could do. I realize that cutting yourself out of an in building place to eat lunch sucks, but a manager like that needs to be shit canned.

self-satisfied

[PopeRatzo]

I am really proud of the fact that I don't know what "Foursquare" is.

I really don't need to know what all of my friends are saying and doing at all times of the day and night. Shit, life is too short.

I wonder how many twenty-somethings are going to hit 40 and realize that they spent more time updating their social networks than actually doing something.