The
app tracks a user’s location even when the app is not open. Instead, by
default, the app automatically provides Foursquare with the phone’s GPS
coordinates any time the phone is turned on, unless the user specifically opts
out of such tracking. Persistent location tracking of this sort could provide
Foursquare with an even more valuable data stream that it can sell. Foursquare
claims that the services it provides are a fair trade for the data it collects;
privacy experts, on the other hand, fault Foursquare for requiring that users
opt out of being tracked rather than opt in.
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