Foursquare Talks Privacy Ahead of Rumored Facebook Location Feature Announcement

By Chris Crum

Privacy is a major concern in social media these days, and location-based services add a whole different element to the equation (we can’t wait to see what happens when Facebook unleashes its location feature).

Check-in app posterchild Foursquare has made some changes to its own privacy controls.

“For example, you can now choose to share your email or phone number with friends, opt out of all Mayorships, and have more control over email settings,” the Foursquare team says. “We invite you to check out your updated settings page to review some of the tweaks we’ve made.”

“It seems that a lot of concerns over information sharing on location-based services arise from confusion over what is shared and where it’s shared, so we’ve put together an explanation of the different ways foursquare uses and shares location information,” the team adds.

The overview can be found here. Among other information, a “Sharing Matrix” can be found, which shows you which elements are being displayed where, what is viewable by friends, and what is viewable by all users.

It’s probably a smart move for Foursquare to talk about this today if Facebook is going to announce its new location features tomorrow, because Facebook’s is going to draw a lot of scrutiny whether they get it right or not. This in turn will bring a great deal of scrutiny to this whole space in general, and Foursquare is right there among the top players.