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And Strava is actually a social network. It's not only your own runs. You see your friends running and which runs they made. It must be a privacy (and security?
by jraph 3y ago
And Strava is actually a social network. It's not only your own runs. You see your friends running and which runs they made. It must be a privacy (and security? You're specifically telling people "hey, I'm not home right now and I'm not back before N minutes" [edit: apparently not quite true, see comments below]) nightmare.
And it's prone to the network effect, because now, people expect and want to see what their friends are up to and motivate each others.
During a job interview, I was once asked "oh, but you don't actually run too much, right?" (I had this in my resume). Which was somewhat right, I only occasionally run. I asked why they assumed this. "You are not on Strava!"
Ah, yes, but for different reasons xD.
I have played with the ForRunners app on F-Droid in the past to track my runs locally. I liked it, but I'm not disciplined enough for this stuff, and don't even have a smartphone usable for this anymore. So now, I just run without knowing anything and that's fine.
- Cockbrand 3y agoThere's no realtime tracking, the activities are uploaded to Strava after finishing them. It can become a potential security issue if you upload activities from far away from home.
- constantly 3y agoIt does have a real time tracking feature. I don’t use it, I use the built in Garmin. But you can enable this and anyone following you can see your activity in real time. I find the bigger security issue is recording close to home, so people can theoretically see where you live and know what sort of expensive sports equipment you might have. https://road.cc/content/news/248798-cyclist-who-had-five-bikes-stolen-says-thieves-are-looking-quick-times-strava https://road.cc/content/news/248798-cyclist-who-had-five-bik...
- speedgoose 3y agoPeople publishing an online catalog of fancy sport equipment for thieves isn’t good indeed. I find military people running around infrastructures in secret military bases a bigger strava security issue.
- Cockbrand 3y agoLast time I checked, the real time tracking was disabled by default and could only be enabled only for specially selected contacts, but it's been a while since I checked. And if someone shows off their expensive bikes on social media (and that's what Strava is, among other functions)... well, it makes it known to others that they own expensive bikes. Social media has been around for long enough that its users should be aware that this kind of behaviour may impose certain risks.
- ReleaseCandidat 3y agoNot exactly. You can see all public dáta and the data your "friends" (person you follow) share to followers. There exists really private data too. Btw. Strava did add a "don't show GPS 200m near my home (or any other location)" feature some time ago. But I guess that still isn't the default.
- kleinsch 3y agoIt’s the default https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000173384-Edit-Map-Visibility https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000173384-Ed...
- ReleaseCandidat 3y agoGood, thanks for the heads up.
- andylynch 3y agoIt’s doesn’t show live data, but yes this kind of service does have privacy concerns. If you’re say, a Russian submarine commander, don’t use it, or at least see your rides private like it shows you. https://taskandpurpose.com/news/did-ukraine-just-assassinate-a-russian-submarine-captain-with-his-own-strava/ https://taskandpurpose.com/news/did-ukraine-just-assassinate...
- Moru 3y agoIt's not only russian submarines, all sorts of soldiers are using it to track their fitness in secret army training camps that now show up glowing on the global hotmap.
- ReleaseCandidat 3y agoYes, there have been quite some problems with Strava and military secrets, like: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/21/strava-users-spy-israeli-military-fake-routes-in-bases https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/21/strava-users-s... https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19706949/special-forces-leak-secret-locations-putin-fitness-app/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19706949/special-forces-leak-s... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracki... https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-fitness-trackers-privacy/ https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-f...
- toyg 3y agoMore commonly, if you are a woman running alone on regular routes at predictable times, broadcasting this fact is likely to put you at significant risk.
- matsemann 3y agoYou can decide who you share things with (everyone, followers, no one), and also decide who can follow you. So it's not really too bad in that sense. Of course, many, including me, have most public. It's needed to be on the public leaderboards ("segments"). But even then it's not live tracking publicly, and you can wait a few days to publish the activity if you're doing things abroad and are afraid it'll show people you're not home. (And I'd be more worried about Instagram etc in that aspect). One cool feature, which unfortunately got severely nerfed due to privacy, was the fly-by. During your activity, you could see who else you met on the way. The cyclist blasting past us? Yeah, that was a semi pro, cool! Or during a race, could later see how everyone did in a cool visualization. The guy I biked next to for some kms and then lost track of, how did he end up? But this could also be misused. Biked past a girl? Use fly-by to figure out who she is and stalk her. Could even upload fake activities to track everyone passing some spots etc. Also, you could use Strava to figure out where people lived. And use that to targeted breakins for expensive cycle gear. However, now each activity will fuzz your start and end locations. I feel Strava had taken privacy very seriously the later years. It's sad that it's needed, because some cool features aren't as usable anymore, but they've prioritized privacy.
- iamacyborg 3y agoFly-by is still very usable. I raced in the Southern Road Relays earlier this year and the fly-by for it is ace.
- nsteel 3y agoFly-by is a shadow of what it was. I never bother anymore. A shame they couldn't figure out a way to make it work and provide some basic privacy.
- prmoustache 3y agoThat is a bold assumption. Many people I know, including me when I was using strava, were using pseudonyms or fake names. Now since I am not an elite cyclist nor race anymore I prefer my ride to be without a computer/screen and just enjoy the ride and the scenery and I don't need to publish everything I do.
- Booourns 3y agoYears ago secret military and intelligence bases were outted based on Strava heat maps.
- rapfaria 3y ago> "You are not on Strava!" What a creepy, american thing to say.
- johannes1234321 3y ago> During a job interview, I was once asked "oh, but you don't actually run too much, right?" That would be a massive red flag for me. If they checkout my private life to that degree, even if running is on the C.V. (unless maybe running is a property of the job, like a pro running team or applying for Strava community person)
- beachy 3y agoWait until you learn that it's incredibly common to look candidates up on Facebook to learn more about their personal life during the recruitment process.
- jraph 3y agoNot a red flag. This company is amazing and the guy just happens to be strongly into running, so he was genuinely interested and curious, most probably. He runs a lot. Of course he checked and I can't blame him. It was also not at all a criterion. This was also a side discussion during a technical interview. It was fine, really.
- mikestew 3y agoIf they checkout my private life to that degree… Yeah, what a dick that guy was, trying to find something in common with the candidate to ease into the interview. Stick to leet coding questions, buddy!