Foursquare Advertising Guidelines

1. General

  • The Advertising Guidelines set forth herein consists of advertising content criteria, community standards, and other applicable requirements (“Guidelines”). While these guidelines are established to remind advertisers of certain obligations when using Foursquare for advertising, it is not to serve as legal advice and adherence to these guidelines does not necessarily constitute legal compliance. The responsibility remains with advertisers to ensure that their ads comply with all applicable laws, statutes, and regulations.
  • The Guidelines, as well as our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, apply to all ads and content served by or appearing on Foursquare (including ads purchased under AAAA/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions).
  • Ads appearing within the Foursquare app must comply with all additional Foursquare Platform Policies.
  • Ads must not contain false, misleading, fraudulent, or deceptive claims or content.
  • You may not manage more than one advertiser or client through a single ad account, and may not change the advertiser or client associated with an established ad account.

2. Data and Privacy

  • No data collected, derived or obtained from or in connection with a Foursquare ad, including Foursquare’s delivery of an ad, and Foursquare user’s interaction with a Foursquare served ad (such as information derived from targeting criteria) (“Foursquare advertising data”) may be received or used by an entity not acting on behalf of a Foursquare advertiser.
  • You may not use Foursquare advertising data for any purpose (including retargeting, commingling data across multiple advertisers’ campaigns, building or augmenting user profiles, or allowing piggybacking or redirecting with tags), except on an aggregate and anonymous basis to assess the performance and effectiveness of your advertising campaign.
  • You may use information provided directly to you from users if you provide clear notice to and obtain consent from those users and comply with all applicable laws and industry guidelines.
  • You may not directly or indirectly transfer or sell any data to, or use such data in connection with any ad network, ad exchange, data broker, or other party not acting on behalf of an advertiser and the advertiser’s Foursquare advertising campaign. By indirectly we mean you cannot, for example, transfer data to a third party who then transfers the data to an ad network.

3. Ad Restrictions and Positioning

Ads need to be contextually appropriate, any text, images, or other media, must be relevant and appropriate to the product or service being offered and the audience viewing the ad. They must include proper grammar and the use of all symbols, numbers, or letters that adhere to the true meaning of the symbol.

We prohibit ads that: position products or services in a sexually suggestive manner, or contain content that exploits political agendas or “hot button” issues for commercial use.

  • Accuracy

    Ads must clearly represent the company, product, service, or brand that is being advertised. Products and services promoted in the ad copy must be clearly represented on the landing page, and the destination site may not offer or link to any prohibited product or service.

  • Attribution

    Ad text may not assert or imply, directly or indirectly, within the ad content or by targeting, a user’s personal characteristics within the following categories:

    1. race or ethnic origin;
    2. religion or philosophical belief;
    3. age;
    4. sexual orientation;
    5. gender identity;
    6. medical condition (including physical and mental);
    7. financial information or status; and
    8. criminal record.
  • Destination Sites

    Ads that leads to a destination or landing page outside out Foursquare must lead to a functioning landing page that does not interfere with a user’s ability to navigate away from the page. The end destination or landing page of your URLs may not be changed after it has been launched.

  • Images

    Images cannot contain text.

  • Targeting

    Ads for regulated goods and services must abide by all applicable laws, regulations, and industry codes.

4. Ad Content

Ads must comply with all applicable laws, regulations and guidelines. All claims in ads must be adequately substantiated. Ads must not offend users. Ads and any offers promoted within ads must not be false, deceptive or misleading or contain spam. Ads must not contain or promote illegal products or services. Ads must not violate the rights of any third parties. The following specific content guidelines apply:

  • Adult Products and Services – Ads may not promote the sale or use of adult products or services.
  • Alcohol products are prohibited.
  • Counterfeit goods – Ads may not promote that sale of counterfeit goods, including but not limited to counterfeit tickets and merchandise.
  • Drugs and Tobacco are prohibited.
  • Gambling and Lotteries are prohibited.
  • Pharmaceuticals and Supplements are prohibited.
  • Software – Ads may not contain or link directly or indirectly to a site that contains spyware/malware downloads or any software that results in an unexpected, deceptive or unfair user experience.
  • Unacceptable Business Practices – Ads may not promote a business practice or model that is deemed by Foursquare in its sole discretion to be unacceptable or conflicts with Foursquare’s advertising philosophy.
  • Weapons and Explosives – Ads may not promote the sale or use of weapons, ammunition or explosives, including but not limited to firearms, paintball guns, BB guns, knives, stun guns and related accessories.

5. Community Standards

Foursquare reserves the right in its sole discretion to determine whether an ad or contents of an ad violates with our community standards as follows:

  • Illegal Activity
  • Harassment, Threaten, or Impersonate Others
  • Hate or Violent speech
    1. Ads may not contain hate or violence speech whether directed at an individual or a group based on membership within certain categories. These categories include, but are not limited to, age, race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, disability, veteran status, martial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or language.
    2. Ads may not contain, promote or attempt to glorify self-harm or related content.
    3. Ads may not contain or promote violence against people or animals.
  • Minors – Ads that are targeted to minors may not promote products or services that are illegal for use by minors in their jurisdiction, or that are deemed to be unsafe or inappropriate.
  • Offensive, Vulgar or Obscene
  • Sex/Nudity or Suggestive/Provocative Positions
  • Shock Value

6. Foursquare Endorsement

Ads may not give the impression that there is an endorsement or partnership between Foursquare and advertiser. Ads linking to Foursquare branded content may make limited reference to Foursquare in ad text for the sole purpose of clarifying the destination of the ad.

7. Third Party Rights

Ads may not include content that infringes upon or violates the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicly, or other personal or proprietary rights.