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You May Have Forgotten Foursquare, But It Didn't Forget You (wired.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the location-data-giants dept.

nj_peeps shares an excerpt from a report via Wired: [Foursquare cofounder Dennis Crowley says the company is working on a new game.] Think Candyland, but instead of fantasy locations like Lollipop Woods, the game's virtual board includes place categories associated with New York City neighborhoods. There's a Midtown Bar, a Downtown Movie Theatre, Brooklyn Coffeeshop, Uptown Park, and so on. As in Candyland, you move your game piece forward by drawing cards. But in Crowley's version, the cards are the habits and locations of real people whose data has been turned into literal pawns in the game. Foursquare knows where their phones are in real time, because it powers many widely used apps, from Twitter and Uber to TripAdvisor and AccuWeather. These people aren't playing Crowley's game, but their real-world movements animate it: If one of them goes into a bar in midtown, for example, the person playing the game would get a Midtown Bar card.

Ask someone about Foursquare and they'll probably think of the once-hyped social media company, known for gamifying mobile check-ins and giving recommendations. But the Foursquare of today is a location-data giant. During an interview with NBC in November, the company's CEO, Jeff Glueck, said that only Facebook and Google rival Foursquare in terms of location-data precision. You might think you don't use Foursquare, but chances are you do. Foursquare's technology powers the geofilters in Snapchat, tagged tweets on Twitter; it's in Uber, Apple Maps, Airbnb, WeChat, and Samsung phones, to name a few.

60 comments

  1. A Strange Game by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Funny

    A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

    1. Re:A Strange Game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The only move is not to give a shit, there is no winning.

    2. Re:A Strange Game by GayPK · · Score: -1

      I'll thay.....gayPK ;)

      P.S. => My hosts file engine is actually a GIANT VIRUS and I have no way to prove it isn't.

      P.P.S. => I am *gay*....GAYpk

    3. Re:A Strange Game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Here is "Gigi" Rivera gettin' NAILED to straighten you out a bit.
       
      P.S....it is a virus, and my virus scanner says so. APK is a fruitcake and is afraid to release the source code of his virus because we could point right to where the rootkit is.

  2. sup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    I'm totally woke. Anybody else woke? I'm so woke I've got morning wood all day long. Looking for somebody else that's totally woke to play with my cock and balls.

    1. Re:sup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      try /r/popperpigs

  3. We did not forget by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Steve Wozniak's flight schedules. And all that weird shit.

  4. Use a smart phone: get tracked by DogDude · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's no way around it. If you use a "smart" phone, you're being tracked by at least a handful of shitty companies. If you don't like it, your only option is not to use a "smart" phone.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
    1. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by sheramil · · Score: 2

      "Can this be right? Looks like this one user, 'Sheramil' divides their time between shitposting on Slashdot and buying Pepsi Max at the nearest supermarket. We can't monetize this."

      Steal my data if you will. It has no value.

    2. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget the gay bar and steam house. They can advertise condoms lube and anal wart doctors.

    3. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He said Pepsi, not Kendall.

    4. Re: Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He shares internet with your mom....

    5. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same for smart TVs.

      Smart anything = tracking you.

    6. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's no way around it. If you use a "smart" phone, you're being tracked by at least a handful of shitty companies.

      There is a way. Just buy an android phone with decent aftermarket support, and flash a rom without gapps.
      You can install fdroid if you want.

    7. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by xonen · · Score: 1

      Hello there. Pepsi here!
      If you scratch off the 'Slashdot' sticker that's permanently attached to your monitor, you will find a code underneath. Fill in this code on our website and win a year long Pepsi Max!
      You can participate as often as you want. Winners are randomly selected from the top-1000 of most popular websites.

      P.S. Thanks facebook, google, twitter and linkedin for your identifiable data, we will forward it to the pimple removal and weight loss pharmacies as we have some interesting statistical facts for you!

      --
      A glitch a day keeps the bugs away.
    8. Re: Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cool, and Scroogle still gets and sells your data. gg ez

    9. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 0

      Use an iPhone and switch of "allow access to your geo location" for every app, problem solved.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    10. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by mentil · · Score: 1

      How are you supposed to use Uber or Apple Maps without location tracking?

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    11. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You would think using Apple Maps would contain your information to Apple. Apparently not. If this is true, I will lose all trust in Apple's 'we care about your privacy' marketing. There are DIY phones out there... GPS, a mp3 player, and a contact list for phone calls are the only features I require and I don't require a single device for all of those.

    12. Re: Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't use google, don't use the browser, don't use network access.

      Does anyone have a recommendation for a wired keyboard? I don't really want to get a bluetooth one because I fear my bluetooth MAC would leak out (perhaps I can randomize it or have one just for the keyboard but it's hard to investigate things like this without a keyboard in the first place)

    13. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can sit down and take time to zoom a map...

    14. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How are you supposed to use Uber or Apple Maps without location tracking?

      First off, I refuse to use Uber because I think they're assholes who have claimed magical unicorn poop exempts them from taxi laws.

      Second, if I need navigation, I have my nice TomTom which is offline, free of ads and analytics, and isn't dependent on a cell signal.

      Not all of us have bought into the bullshit notion that our lives would be incomplete without being spied on by our phones.

      Apps can kiss my ass, because they're primarily just used to scrape your data and monetize it. I refuse to play that game.

    15. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Makes me feel a little better each day that I never got a smart phone.

    16. Re: Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They specifically mention "without gapps"... No gapps, no Google.

      Of course your cell phone carrier is still tracking you via towers. No way around that.

    17. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      There is a way around it: make it illegal.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    18. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by DogDude · · Score: 1

      How are you supposed to use Uber or Apple Maps without location tracking?

      You can't. If you don't want to be tracked, get a paper map (they do still exist!) and call a taxi (they still exist, too!).
      You write that post as if it's impossible to live without Uber and Apple Maps. You know that people lived just fine without those things just a few years ago, and lots of people (myself included) live full, complete lives without phone maps and Uber now, right?

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    19. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by DogDude · · Score: 2

      There is a way around it: make it illegal

      You're suggesting regulations on business? Why do you hate America?

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    20. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Pascoea · · Score: 1

      and call a taxi (they still exist, too!).

      Yeah, hard pass on that one. I've never taken a taxi in a "big city", but I've taken plenty in relatively smaller ones. (Think places like Bismarck ND) There were 2 taxi companies, neither of which gave a shit about anything. Their cabs were dilapidated piles of crap that smelled like piss, vomit, and body odor. Their drivers were rude and drove like they've seen too many action movies. And good luck getting a ride home after bar close, on a slow night it would be a half hour, on a busy night you're better off walking.

      While Uber and Lyft aren't perfect, they've changed things out there 100% for the better. The cab companies have cleaned up their act a bit, now that there is some actual competition. And you can reasonably expect to be able to get a ride, from either the cab company, Uber, or Lyft, within a half hour. Not getting into the privacy and legality aspects of Uber and Lyft, but their services have definitely made getting around easier and better.

    21. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And I don't use a "smart" phone...I have a flip phone. No Internet, no GPS.

    22. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use a dumbphone. For real. It costs 1/10 of most smart phones, has text, calendar, etc. And the overwhelming majority of this sort of thing doesn't impact me.

      There are downsides. I can't just google maps on it. I have to prepare a bit more....like we all had to do in the old days before smart phones. But you know....it just isn't that hard.

    23. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not a taxi. And you should be thanking them for breaking that fascist city money laundering poop of an idea.

    24. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do you think regulations on shitty corporate behavior == hating America? Are you confusing America with "corporations" again?

    25. Re:Use a smart phone: get tracked by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      For Uber you don't need location tracking.

      That a map app might need the location is obvious. So: what has it to do with the topic?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  5. kmod down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    R200 running NT

  6. mod 0p by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    base for FrreBSD PERSONAL RIVALRIES approximately 90% percent of the *BSD

  7. Ok by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Think Candyland, but instead of fantasy locations like Lollipop Woods, the game's virtual board includes place categories associated with New York City neighborhoods. There's a Midtown Bar, a Downtown Movie Theatre, Brooklyn Coffeeshop, Uptown Park, and so on.

    This sounds surprising not interesting at all.
    Not even in the slightest.

  8. I forgot again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who??

  9. Foursquare is still a thing?!? by alaskana98 · · Score: 1

    I used Foursquare maybe all of 10 times around 2010 or so, got bored and haven't looked back since. Didn't even know it was still in existence anymore. That new board game sounds about as interesting as the original Foursquare concept, moving on (again). It's kind of depressing to hear that they are still alive and kicking in a more discreet (but probably incredibly profitable) form, collecting all our PII data and laughing all the way to the bank. Sigh.

    1. Re:Foursquare is still a thing?!? by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 1

      You use Foursquare all the time without knowing it. And they use you all the time without you knowing it also.

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    2. Re:Foursquare is still a thing?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Impossible, location is always turned off and I never search for anything regional

  10. Re:A Strange Game GAY NIGGER CUM WAD IN ANUS! GNAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1
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  11. Re:A Strange Game GAY NIGGER CUM WAD IN ANUS! GNAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    this is why the first amendment needs to change, this is why anonymous, usenet and comment places and things like dissenter need to be banned. this hate must be erased from all places on the internet and entertainment media.

  12. You may have forgotten the 1993 WTC bombing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It happened under Slick Willy Clinton so fake news doesnt talk about it much. Important take-away from the event is THE FBI PROVIDED ALL THE BOMB-MAKING MATERIALS for that "terror" attack.

  13. Who else? by SeaFox · · Score: 1

    You might think you don't use Foursquare, but chances are you do. Foursquare's technology powers the geofilters in Snapchat, tagged tweets on Twitter; it's in Uber, Apple Maps, Airbnb, WeChat, and Samsung phones, to name a few.

    Where can I find the full list? Because I don't use any of those, either. /smirk

    1. Re:Who else? by epine · · Score: 2

      Foursquare is now working behind-the-scenes with Asia's biggest social networks — June 2017

      For Korean phone giants Samsung and LG, Foursquare's API will be used in some of their default apps. If you take a picture using a Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8+, the phone will tag your location based on Foursquare's Places database.

      This brain damage appears to concern fairly recent models. I'm about six generations further behind, so my mandatory security practice is to enable my data modem less than once a month, and to enable my Wi-Fi modem almost as rarely.

      Two birds with one stone.

  14. Announcement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Have always notice that my spouse has been acting strange but after a friend introduced acehackerlord@gmail.com. with their help I was able to know that he has been cheating on me. Please if you need help with any hacking services then you can contact them on acehackerlord@gmail.com. you will not regret.

  15. Nope ... I sure am not ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You might think you don't use Foursquare, but chances are you do.

    No, I can assure you, I don't.

    See, I don't use pointless social media, I don't carry a smartphone everywhere I go, and I sure as fuck wouldn't enable location services if I did.

    Basically as I read this, FourSquare are assholes, who are making money by tracking you and not compensating you, and somehow I'm not supposed to think they're all shit bags and that I should trust these things?

    Yeah, fuck you.

    The rest of the world may have lost their shit and decided to allow every asshole of an app track their location.

    It is my considered opinion that Dennis Crowley and anybody working for these douchebag corporations has opened themselves up for a beating by anybody and everybody, and that they've waived all privacy rights -- since they seem to think we have.

    So, post his kid's school ... post his parents information ... post his banking information ... or just feel free to give him a beat down.

    I've found my nice simple rule that "all apps are presumed to be written by assholes" works well. If it's an app, it's spying on you ... period.

  16. Bare Android, No GAPPS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use bare Android without GAPPS. I have no social media anything. I have a very small whitelist for permissions.

    For navigation, I either use my non-connected vehicle nav or a non-connected tablet I have with offline maps.

    I might be a little surprised of 4SQ has location information on me, but maybe not. I am sure Android itself has location tracking you can't disable, so I am certain Google knows where I am at all times.

  17. Announcement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have always notice that my spouse has been acting strange but after a friend introduced me to acehackerlord@gmail.com. with their help I was able to know that he was cheating on me. Please if you need any hacking services then contact them at acehackerlord@gmail.com and you won't regret it.

  18. Weren't they the creepy app? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember some news about a stalking app using foursquares and facebook data used by stalker to target random women.

  19. I remember now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now I remember, they were exposed by an app called girlsaroundme, I though they were finished after some stalking scandal.

  20. In Soviet Russia ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    ... FourSquare looks up YOU!

    1. Re:In Soviet Russia ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice to see somebody still venerates the old "memes". Slashdot had memes before today's memes crawled out of the sea.

  21. Ask someone about Foursquare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ask someone about Foursquare and they'll think of the playground name because the company named after the playground name isn't a household name.

  22. Forgotten? by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    Was it ever a thing?

  23. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No we haven't, kids play this every day at lunch. It's been around forever and remains popular. Hopscotch as well.

  24. Four Square? by rnturn · · Score: 1

    I was unaware that it had a meaning newer than the playground game that was popular when I was in grade school.

    --
    CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
  25. Ingress and Pokemon Go already do this by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

    And they manage to do it in a less creepy way by not tracking the players in realtime.

    Or at least not making the tracking data available to other players.

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  26. It's not a bug, it's by design. Same as ever. by doubledown00 · · Score: 1

    Friends and family call me paranoid. I keep data and GPS turned off most of the time and don't install apps. This leads to the logical question on why carry a smart phone. The reality is they are *just* useful enough. That time once a week when I need directions. Or need to carry tickets to an event or check-in with an airline.

    The reality is you're going to be tracked. The question is how much data you choose to give up. As with other forms of privacy (financial, medical, personal) the system is setup so that the default posture is wide open full disclosure. You can change it, but that takes education and effort........and doing so causes inconvenience. That's by design.

  27. "Literal pawns"??? Literally? by mark-t · · Score: 1

    Literally, a pawn is a chess piece. Full stop. Other definitions which might be applied to it exist by virtue of a metaphor for anything or anyone whose loss is relatively inconsequential and typically part of a calculated gamble to achieve some supposedly greater gain.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'