Our Story Got Foursquare To Kill API Access To Creepy Stalking App Girls Around Me [Update: Facebook Responds]

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Notorious girl tracking app Girls Around Me had its API cut-off by Facebook in response to Cult of Mac's story earlier today.
Notorious girl tracking app Girls Around Me had its API cut-off by Facebook in response to Cult of Mac's story earlier today.

In direct response to our story from earlier today about Girls Around Me, an iOS app by Russian-based app developer i-Free that tracks and gives personal information about women without their knowledge, Foursquare has released a statement announcing that they have officially killed Girls Around Me’s access to their public API.

In a statement given exclusively to Cult of Mac, Foursquare‘s Laura Covington said: “This is a violation of our API policy, so we’ve reached out to the developer and shut off their API access.”

Asked to clarify with us the section of their API policy that prohibits apps like Girls Around Me from using their data, Foursquare responded:

We have a policy against aggregating information across venues using our API, to prevent situations like this where someone would present an inappropriate overview of a series of locations.

Still silent on the issue is Facebook. We have written the social networking giant asking for their stance on Girls Around Me and apps like it, but had not received comment as of writing.

Update: Facebook has just released a statement to Cult of Mac, saying that they are currently investigating the app. We hope to have more details shortly.

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