"Girls Around Me", a new iOS application, has sparked a wave of dissatisfaction on social networks, with Internet users warning that the application, which is downloading information on Foursquare and Facebook, allows users to be tracked by unknown people.

Basically, when installing "Girls Around Me", the application asks permission to access the GPS data on Foursquare and Facebook profile. Using this data, the application lets you know which are the most popular clubs or places nearby and who is in there, as well as if those persons are involved or not in a relationship, according to data from their Facebook profile.

Several bloggers have pointed out that the application allows people to be stalked by strangers especially if they are careless with the privacy settings.

"Girls Around Me" was downloaded by 70,000 people so far. The application is free, but the users have to pay 99 cents for an "energy pack" - a system that allows you to search in an accelerated pace single women around you.

"This would be a very different application if it didn't link back to Facebook, which is the treasure trove of information. With that link, this app could easily be a "let's stalk women" app," said Elizabeth Stark, a lecturer at Stanford University.

Foursquare Blocks the Access to 'Girls Around Me'

On Saturday, Foursquare said it has decided to stop the API access, so that the application will not be able to collect users' GPS data.

"This is a violation of our API policy, so we've reached out to the developer and shut off their API access," said Laura Covington, a spokeswoman for Foursquare.

The developer of "Girls Around Me" app is a Russian company called i-Free. Its representatives responded to Foursquare's release through a statement in which they complained, saying that the purpose of this application was misunderstood.

"It is unethical to pick a scapegoat to talk about the privacy concerns. We see this wave of negative as a serious misunderstanding of the app's goals, purpose, abilities and restrictions ," the Russian app developer said.

(reported by Laurentiu Stan, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)