Comments on: FAQ: Why can’t I see who else is checked in anymore?

By: Erika Barbosa

Erika Barbosa — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:24:29 +0000

I agree with @Helton’s comment. His recommendation would have made more sense to the user base as a whole.

By: Helton

Helton — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 21:25:13 +0000

It’s simple, just add an option at privacy settings, “share location with everyone” and other “share location only with friends” is that so dificult to be implemented ?

By: Otto

Otto — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:23:59 +0000

Foursquare’s changes, especially to the mobile application, have continually rendered it increasingly useless. This change doesn’t really matter in the long run, because the application is already pretty frickin’ pointless.

Why can’t I see a simple list of “where my friends are right now”? The mobile app insists on showing me this big list of check-ins, with useless pictures (I know what my friends look like, no need to show me their f’ing avatars too), useless commentary (if I want to see what people are saying, then I can click through to the next page, you don’t need to front that information), useless pictures of the venue (again, I can click through), and worthless historical info (the fact that a friend of mine checked in somewhere previous to where he is now is of no value to me).

What I NEED to know is where people are RIGHT NOW. In a concise and easy to browse listing. Why? Because the only reason I’m looking at that list is to determine where I should go to meet them. It’s simple. How can you guys be so utterly blind as to take the major use case of the application and totally destroy it? You’ve virtually made yourselves irrelevant with the latest changes.

TL,DR: The app now sucks rocks, fix it.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:58:16 +0000

good point chris. anyone can follow you on twitter and if you provide content, you kind of want more people following to consume that content. i do the same thing. i only post check-ins to twitter when i want that type of exposure bc it also posts to my timeline on facebook. i think a good amount of us check-in to keep track of where we’ve been and collect rewards…not to make new friends, which i believe is a bonus but not the main goal. on the privacy issue, men vs women, it really is a concern, and kind of creepy, for most women when people pursue a ‘friendship’ through social media- unfortunately

By: Ben Fortney

Ben Fortney — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:50:13 +0000

I think this was 4sq getting ahead of the curve. For a lot of people who don’t use it their argument is “I don’t want everyone to know where I am.” despite the fact that 4sq doesn’t do that.

By shutting down something that *appeared* to be a privacy concern (and could be the cause of massive bad publicity) they’re able to counter that argument and avoid a potential black eye as they get bigger.

By: Chris Thompson

Chris Thompson — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:23:34 +0000

I don’t really have a problem with regular people checking in somewhere and seeing that I’m there. This all but eliminates the chances of a developer exposing the location of lots of folks at once — a la Girls Around Me — because instead of one API call to gather the locations of everyone in an area, they must now make two PER VENUE (check in, then check the venue info to see who’s there) which would put them over the rate limit for API requests in very short order.

By: 5square

5square — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:38:31 +0000

Ok. So.. Iike Ching Yu.. I originally misunderstood what was going on here. They dont show you who is at a place until after you check in.
I must say.. Im not really sure what that does for privacy.. Its just an extra step..
But if this makes “them” feel better.. then whatever..
Because I dont think Ive ever checked in or gone somewhere because someone else was checked in there at that moment.. So in the end this has no influence on me personally as a regular user.

By: Chris Thompson

Chris Thompson — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:22:07 +0000

Consider me one of those privacy worryniks then. I almost never share my check-ins to Twitter because I do consider my location private. I tightly control my circle of friends on both foursquare and Facebook. I’ve either met or spoken to every single one of them at least a few times before I accept them.

I spend a lot of time with my kids and I don’t ever EVER want to share my location publicly if I’m with them. Occasionally I’ll post to Twitter when they’re not around.

Foursquare is and should be designed for any level of privacy you want. The here now loophole was, unfortunately, the one spot that was never shored up. I’m glad to see that it has been closed and there’s no longer even a small chance that I’ll be exposing my location publicly.

Perhaps I’m more of a worrynik than other current foursquare users, but the long term health of the service depends on catering to people like me. Most folks just aren’t comfortable with sharing their location publicly.

By: Bob Boles

Bob Boles — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 04:15:49 +0000

Precisely, Chris. The whole idea is to let your friends know where you are in case they want to come hang out too. When you check in “off the grid” it defeats THAT purpose. One of the reasons I think highways/intersections/etc. should not be allowed as venues, but that’s another thread! Keep up the good work you do on this site!

By: Tom Servo

Tom Servo — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 21:36:22 +0000

This whole issue seems silly to me, anyway. If you expect privacy, why are you “checking in” publicly anywhere? That includes Facebook and Google+, which, depending on one’s privacy settings may show a checkin to the public at large.

A good 90% of my Foursquare friends are, believe it or not, people I’ve never met in person (the other 10% are friends out of state that I have zero chance of meeting in daily life.) The 90% are people who’ve been checked in to my favorite venues and wound up friending me (or vice versa) just on common grounds. This update will pretty much eliminate that unless we happen to be in the exact same places at the exact same times, which in two years has only happened once to one of my “non” friend friends.

Since many of these privacy worryniks are forwarding their checkins to Twitter, and most people use Twitter in a completely public manner, isn’t this defeating any semblance of privacy anyway?