Here was their response to my complaint.
Subject: Do you store my contacts?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <MYNAME> ✆ via gmail.com
17/07/2011
to privacy Hi.
I recently downloaded the Android Foursquare application. It automatically started scanning the contacts on my phone.
Questions: 1. Does the application upload my contacts to FourSquare?
2. If so, does FourSquare store my contacts?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> ✆
18/07/2011
to <MYNAME> We do not store or upload contacts! It's a one-time search of your phone's contacts to find friends to add on foursquare.
See more information at foursquare.com/privacy/grid and https://foursquare.com/legal/terms
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <MYNAME> ✆ via gmail.com
19/07/2011
to <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> Hi,
I think you must upload my contacts to your servers to identify which ones are on foursquare.
When you upload them, do you send them in plaintext or encrypted?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> ✆
19/07/2011
to <MYNAME> Right, yes, we do send info to the server but do not save anything. All foursquare pages are encrypted as of April 6. <MYNAME> ✆ via gmail.com
20/07/2011
to <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> It's nice to know your pages are encrypted, but my question relates to when you sent all my contacts to your server from your mobile app. Did it use an encrypted connection to do this?
Thanks,
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> ✆
20/07/2011
to <MYNAME> yes, any information sent via any foursquare page, mobile or otherwise, is encrypted.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <MYNAME> ✆ via gmail.com
20/07/2011
to <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> Thanks for the confirmation.
One final thing - it would be polite for your app to request permission before scanning my phone and uploading all my contacts to your server. Please consider it a complaint that it did not ask permission.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> ✆
20/07/2011
to <MYNAME> We totally agree! When you download foursquare, we list the permissions that you are giving us, including scanning your contacts list (which we do not save or store). See here: http://cl.ly/18433L2s3g1T13070y0X.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <MYNAME> ✆ via gmail.com
21/07/2011
to <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> We don't agree.
It is not made clear that you are going to scan for my contacts and upload them.
You should explicitly make me aware and ask for permission in advance of doing that.
Furthermore, your tone and wilfully ignoring my legitimate complaint is annoying.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> ✆
21/07/2011
to <MYNAME> <MYNAME>, I'm sorry you feel that way! I have spent time talking to four different engineers (two server engineers about what info is stored and how information is transferred, and two Android developers) about your questions out of respect and concern for you as a user with a valid query. I take all user questions and concerns seriously and as a member of the Product team, pass on this sort of complaint so that we can be sensitive to that fact that if one person is asking/upset about something, there are probably others. Sorry if I did not do a good job of conveying the way I run community and support for foursquare in my tone. Sometimes email is hard in that sense. I hope you know that we care and appreciate your emails.
Best,
<FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> ✆
21/07/2011
to <MYNAME> Also, since we don't save your contacts in anyway, I'm not sure that we are actually "uploading" them. Is there something else that is bothering you? Perhaps I'm not understanding your concern completely--we aren't telling your contacts that you are using foursquare nor are we automatically adding them as your friends, we're merely searching your phone's contacts for other people you know who are also using foursquare so that you can then decide which of those you'd like to send a friend request to. Can you please let me know what part of this you find troubling so I can pass on your concerns? Thank you! <MYNAME> ✆ via gmail.com
21/07/2011
to <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> Uploading means essentially the same thing as sending for the purposes of this complaint.
uploading: present participle of up·load Verb: Transfer (data) to a larger computer system.
As for my concern, I can only repeat myself. It is disappointing that you don't immediately understand why this is a problem.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <FOURSQUARE-SUPPORT> ✆
21/07/2011
to <MYNAME> Thanks for voicing your concern. I'm passing it on.