Strava

Strava locking down?

We’re reaching out to inform you of a change that affects how third-party apps connected to Strava may display certain information. This update, effective on November 11th, is part of our commitment to privacy and transparency across all connected apps and devices.

Third-party apps will now only be allowed to display Strava activity data related to a specific user to that user. Partners will be required to update their app within 30 days of November 11th to align with this new standard.

What This Means for You
You’ll continue to have access to your personal Strava activity data within your connected apps, but you may notice differences in how this data appears on platforms that need to align with our updated privacy terms.

We understand these changes can be an adjustment, and we’re here to help. Read our full post for more details on this update and its impact.

Thank you for being a valued member of the Strava community.

Being discussed in the Tile Bagging thread: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/322846/newest/

Ah, not an area I track. It feels odd in some ways and raises questions like will the likes of Garmin lockdown in the same way which could effectively cripple Strava?

It does seem a bit of an odd move although I'm sure it will only impact a small proportion of users. But it will mean that Squadrats and Veloviewer will write links to pull data direct from Garmin or RWGPS or whatever and cut Strava out of the equation.

I would love if RWGPS started their own tiling offshoot so I don't have to worry about Strava any more.

Is it potentially as a reaction to this? https://archive.is/Heoku

That shit happened years ago though. (2018 in fact: https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-fitness-trackers-privacy/)

You can't tell me it has taken them 6 years to go "oh maybe we won't show other people's tracks". It's only in 3rd party apps anyway. You can still see everything in Strava so it's still there.

It's not like it's Strava's responsibility to manage the privacy for individuals. If you're a soldier or some shit, why are you uploading anything to Strava?! HA!

They have privacy zones and Private rides and stuff for normies.

Is this bullshit new? Getting notifications of others doing an activity and they need to opt-out of sending, you yourself can't opt out of receiving.

Preferences > Email Notifications > When my friends post interesting activities

Yup, I don't know for sure that it's connected. I just happened to hear about the report in Le Monde today and also read this post. Potentially I'm putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5.

If it's linked I suspect it'll either be political pressure or just the desire to avoid negative pressure. I know they've a new CEO in the last couple of years, so I suspect that explains why nothing was done in 2018 and it's a different story now.

Those are only emails. My screenshot mentions push notifications. Got 4 notifications today of people doing an activity and a friend of my had the same. Never before so looks like something new.

Yeah. Got informed that my friend Egan Bernal had logged a ride.

If push notifications means the app rather than browser, that has a similar option.

Looks like there was a bit of confusion on my and my friend's part. We got the "bell"-notifications in the app and browser with new activities of others but looks like they are gone now. Maybe a fuckup on Strava's side.

But unchecked that other box you mentioned anyway, so thnx. :)

I would love if RWGPS started their own tiling offshoot so I don't have to worry about Strava any more.

They already do right? So does Komoot etc

In the world of cunty Strava, Garmin Connect is such a great FREE resource.

I don't think so but I've not exactly done a heap of research. RWGPS has heat maps but you still need to plug your rides into something that Squadrats or Veloviewer can use, which currently I thought was only Strava?

I found out my partner ONLY has her rides in Strava. She's never taken local copies or anything else. Muppet.

Garmin connect is so much better than Strava now. Only really lacks the social media aspect and syncing to none Garmin devices. Which is why everyone should just use Garmin.

Garmin connect is so much better than Strava now.

For what?

Only really lacks the social media aspect

That's literally ALL of Strava.

"We recognize that our platform thrives because of the creativity and dedication of third-party developers who build tools to complement and extend Strava’s capabilities. We are steadfast in our commitment to fostering this ecosystem. We anticipate that these changes will affect only a small fraction (less than .1%) of the applications on the Strava platform–the overwhelming majority of existing use cases are still allowed, including coaching platforms focused on providing feedback to users and tools that help users understand their data and performance."

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/17588344/

DC R isn't totally convinced

Yeah, their update seems to entirely sidestep things and use a lot of clever language.

At the end of the day, their update DOESN’T say:

A) Coaches can access data of the user (it says coaching apps can provide feedback)
B) AI tools can be used (it says, even more clearly, they can’t), the pretend line between calling it training versus using is absolutely silly, since they are more clear elsewhere you can’t even use machine learning according to their API
C) That apps can use/show data to others

And I’d argue the whole 0.1% OF APPS thing is entirely useless metric when you have tens of thousands of registered apps, of which 95% are likely long-abondoned projects for a handful of users by a hobbyist developer.

Training insights/data given from your own data.

Ah, I've never looked at any of that. Connect is like a necessary evil between my Garmins and the stuff I mostly use like RWGPS. If I was training seriously I'd be using WKO or Training Peaks again but mostly I just plug shit into TrainerRoad and then supplement with all the other dumb things I do.

He's your friend too?! Here's me thinking I was special...

DC R

This article?

It is an interesting read either way.

I'm not as technically savvy as DCR, but from reading his article I think the issue is that so many of them are dependant on collecting data from Strava in the first place. The big boys will have their own connections eg between TrainRoad and Wahoo/Garmin, but there will be lots of smaller ones that don't. And lots of apps that don't have any proprietry data at all.

I'm interested to see if anything is coming thats actually prompted this change or if they are just trying to FSU.

Yes, the quote I posted was from one of Rays comments on the article after the updated Strava one https://press.strava.com/articles/updates-to-stravas-api-agreement