For what it's worth, iOS 8 has separate permissions for foreground and background location usage. I got the background usage permission alert ~5 minutes after installing the app.
Glad to hear the foreground/background permission is coming in iOS 8. I use Foursquare when I want to search for places nearby to eat, and the occasional checkin, but always go in and enable location for it before using and turn off after. Most of the time I forget to turn it off and still see the location indicator beaming when I get home, thinking to myself "they tracked me this time, darn!". Same goes for google maps too though, so its not like Foursquare is the only one.
One of the selling points of the new app is that it will proactively alert you when you are near a restaurant that matches your tastes. Like if you say you like pulled pork, and pass a great BBQ place, it will let you know.
So, that feature pretty clearly requires "tracking users even when the app is closed."
I thought they had been doing this for a while too, the location indicator is usually active in iOS, even when Foursquare is not running. Go into location privacy and it shows Foursquare as the one getting location.
The weird thing it seems they just started doing is displaying places it thinks you've been recently, along with all your past check-ins. It's not particularly accurate either.
OT, but it doesn't much matter to me, as I've dissociated from the service and uninstalled all apps after the forced Swarm switchover. The dual-app UX is a mind-bendingly bad idea.
Meanwhile my dad's flashlight app on Android was accessing his location, contacts, calls, messages, network traffic and many more stuff without him knowing it.
It's funny how Android OS is on the app developer's side in case of the privacy but iOS cares so much about user's privacy
Even if you take the time to sift through the list of permissions, you haven't installed the app yet, so it is completely unclear what the app needs the permissions for.
On iOS, you are using the app already and will be prompted when it tries to access a resource. Given the app context, it is much easier to understand why that permission is being requested.
I have a bunch of apps on Android that I haven't updated precisely because they are asking for new permissions and I have no clue why. Maybe if I could see new functionality I'd be able to understand why they need more permissions now.
I am a developer. An ordinary user will either not care or not understand this.
Consider this: You really want a flashlight app. You go download the app and see a list of permissions. You really just want to have a light so you go ahead and click okay.
Now on iOS, you download the app and open it. A dialog pops up that says: "May DubiousFlashlight access your contacts?" Of course you tap no. Your contacts are safe and the flashlight still works.
I think the main problem is that on Android, it's the standard that most app will have need a ridiculous list of permissions. Just look at the permissions of the topmost entries for basic apps like barcode readers, flashlights, compasses and so on. Now try the same on iOS and look what permissions you will be asked for, and which permissions you will need to actually use the app. Imo, iOS protects the average user much better than Android.
This is only the case on the crap-infested, ad-riddled Play Store. On a market like F-Droid, where the apps respect your freedom, they also respect your privacy much more. The flashlight apps available there only require the permissions they need, and don't collect any kind of personal information.
I disagree. As a user of both platforms, iOS's privacy settings are clearer (each permission is requested separately) and more granular (not all-or-nothing).
I do not read through the massive list of permissions every app requires when installing on Android. On iOS I do think about whether or not I want to give an app a permission when it asks for it.
They don't need to know, they want to know. They can use a number of signals to make recommendations such as checkins, friends, hearts etc... without knowing my location every few minutes.
Eh, they sort of are paying you indirectly for your checkins.... They are paying a significant amount to a full time staff working on a free app that you use without paying them any money.
You're receiving the benefit of their work in exchange for information about which businesses you frequent, which is them paying you for that location data.
I'm pretty sure this doesn't need to be said, but everyone is allowed to take issue with things that they are not directly involved in. It's part of how society works.
Foursquare updated its privacy policy this week to warn users that with the new version of the app tracks and sometimes shares users’ locations even when the app is closed.
Fun. Kind of like when one of your insurance provides radically alters your coverage, and then buries this fact in some mandatory disclosure paragraph that they know you probably aren't going to read anyway.
You can turn off the constant access to location service in settings of the app.
Constantly tracking a user destroys their battery life, really lazy move on foursquare part. At no point would you ever think constant location tracking is friendly to a user's battery.
"Starting today, users who download or update the Foursquare app will automatically let the company track their GPS coordinates any time their phone is powered on. Foursquare previously required users to give the app permission to turn on location-tracking. Now users must change a setting within the app to opt out."
A bit misleading... For users that had Location Services turned enabled for Foursquare (iOS), there is no additional opt in because they have already opted in in the past. But any new users still will get prompted to allow Foursquare to use Location Services. So it is still opt-in. The fact that Foursquare is checking your location periodically is not surprising as it will give the company more data to improve its service...
Really? I bet the average user isn't aware of whether the app is "running" at any given time or not, and a not-insignificant subset of users wouldn't know how to find out.
iPhones have a separate processor for that. Not really an issue. It's even better in ios8 with regard to battery life tracking. As for the tracking, it asks for permissions and is fairly obvious what it's doing. Yes, if you avoid reading or doing any level of discovery... If you just blindly install the app without thought, you could claim surprise. I find most people assume far worse than the opposite. Ask for location permissions, and they assume they are getting tracked by someone who is watching them in real time through their phones camera.
