Foursquare set to share user’s full names

As if letting people know you're out of the house and ripe for a burglary wasn't enough, Foursquare has pledged to serve up more information on its users, including full names, thanks to a change in privacy policy.

As of 28th January, Foursquare will begin showing a user's entire name, not just their first and surname initial – the only caveat being that everyone will have full control over what their registered “full name” is, so if worried could simply edit that entry.

Apparently the thinking behind this move was to ease confusion. According to a correspondence from the site to its users: “In the original versions of Foursquare, these [naming convention] distinctions made sense, but we get e-mails every day saying that it's now confusing.” Foursquare also published a document titled “Privacy 101,” which outlines what exactly it is that the service does.

As part of this new move, venue owners will also be given more information on customers that “check-in” at their facility, particularly those that did so very recently – and may still be in-store. However, users will be able to opt out of letting a venue see their full name and check-in information.

As CNet points out, coming off the back of the recent privacy gaff at Instagram, Foursquare need to tread very carefully if it doesn't want to distance itself from the very people it's hoping to attract to its service.

KitGuru Says: Do many of you guys use Foursquare? It always seemed like the forgotten cousin of Facebook and Twitter to me.

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