Foursquare’s undergone a major transformation into a recommendation app that’s aimed squarely at Yelp’s territory, and the ramifications are just beginning to be felt. The emergence of Foursquare’s mobile-social data can’t be ignored, especially with the newest version of its mobile app now available for download. But it appears that it means just as much to advertisers as it does to consumers.

Check-ins through Swarm keep track of a number of pieces of information, including search details, discovery and GPS-based location data, which in turn can help target certain ads. Say, for instance, someone spends some time seeking out pizza restaurants. That could be a key opening for similar restaurants to advertise their wares to said users.

However, that doesn’t mean Foursquare users are stuck with certain kinds of data. They can actually set up different “tastes” in food, such as coconut milk, paninis and other types, to change up their style a little bit. As a result, advertisers can try and keep up, using placed-based ads with both Foursquare and Swarm.

Rokkan marketing exec Harley Block believes that the move could make Foursquare “a more attractive buy for brands that are looking to connect with folks they know already have a base level of (interest). While this is not a new practice, we’re interested to see how deep this type of personalization can go without being creepy or invading on privacy – to truly deliver value on an individual basis.”

Meanwhile, Guillaume Lelait, general manager for the mobile agency Fetch, added, “Marketers could use data from each app to target different types of behavioral audiences. Targeting Foursquare could be a way to find users who are ‘hand-raisers’ but not necessarily acting on their research, while targeting Swarm users who are at your location in a more social environment among friends.”

But what could this mean for the app’s development partners Lelait added, “What will be more interesting is that Foursquare/Swarm is continuing to give programmatic partners such as the (demand side platform) Turn access to their location data. This allows unique retargeting opportunities based on (interest-based) audience segments…and running those ads across massively reaching inventory sources such as Facebook Exchange, OpenX and Doubleclick.”

What do you think Is this a smart move on advertisers’ part, or could it be a possible breach of privacy for those who utilize Foursquare and Swarm

Source: Adweek