In a move which indicates the Foursquare is updating its privacy rules in a gentle and transparent manner, the company has started sending notifications to the users about the privacy policy updates, under which more user details and data will be made public from next month onwards.

According to the notification recently sent to the users via e-mail, Foursquare's changed privacy rules will become effective from January 28, 2013. The forthcoming changes will require the display of the "full names" of the users across the check-in service; with the venue owners to have a greater access to the check-in details of the users.

Despite the fact that full names of the Foursquare users are currently being displayed also, the service only shows the first name of the user and his/her last initial, except when friends are being searched on the service.

Noting that the mentioned `full name' distinctions "made sense" in the original Foursquare versions, the company said in its e-mail notification that it receives several e-mails every day, with users grumbling that the distinctions have now become "confusing."

As a result, Foursquare said that, once the new privacy rules take effect, the full names of all the users will be displayed everywhere across the service, though it will still be possible for the users to retain control of the name displayed by changing their "full name" in the settings.