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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.

6 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.

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    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 DogDude · · Score: 2

      There is a way around it: make it illegal

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

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      I don't respond to AC's.
  3. 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.