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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.

22 of 60 comments (clear)

  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. 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 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.

    5. 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
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.

    9. 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.
  3. 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
  4. 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.

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

    ... FourSquare looks up YOU!

  6. Forgotten? by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    Was it ever a thing?

  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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.

  10. "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'