Strava is a fitness app made for users to track their exercise. The app can be extremely accessible and can encourage users to continue their fitness journey. The majority of Strava users are runners, cyclists, and hikers who enjoy the ability to log and track their mileage and speed weekly. Users can also follow other accounts and post pictures. Though Strava can be beneficial for their active users, its features have raised a number of privacy concerns from users and have resulted in many questions surrounding the safety of the service.
Many of Strava’s users are high school athletes, such as cross-country runners, track and field runners, or swimmers, who use the app as a tool for training and connecting to teammates and fellow athletes. When tracking and posting activities on Strava, followers can see a map of your route. Generally, runners and road cyclists will begin their workouts from their homes. This means that, if posting their workout publicly, anyone on Strava can see where they live. As an app that allows teens to post pictures and share their activity, it is important that there are options for users to turn on and off settings depending on comfort levels. Strava does contain customizable features in its settings that allow users to blur the start and end of their run, as well as to make their profile private, but users may be unaware of these features, or simply choose not to use them. Strava did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
Strava also launched a direct messaging feature on the app in Dec. 2023. This helps connect millions of athletes on Strava. Though this feature is for ages 18 and over, it makes Strava seem more like a social media platform than an app to track athletic activity.
Ashley Rose, the women’s cross country and track coach at Franklin, and an active runner, explains that while she does not currently use Strava, she became active on the app in 2015. In the beginning, she felt the app was problematic because it gave her a view of what other runners do, leading to a habit of comparing herself to others. She says that her personal concerns over what others would think about or see on her Strava account led to her overthinking. However, throughout her use of the app, she changed her mindset, and began using it as a tool in her running, to track her mileage and the wear of her shoes. “I also like how it tracks your shoes so you can put your shoes in [the app], and then it will tell you when you need to replace [them].. There were a lot of functions on Strava that I really appreciated,” shares Rose. Certain functions on the app, like the bar graph showing weekly mileage, were also extremely helpful for the running coach. Another positive factor for Rose was the amount of connections she made. She says that countless times she has connected with fellow athletes across the world through Strava, cheering on each other’s achievements and hard work.
Rose believes the privacy for Strava has evolved from when she started using the app but recognizes that “like anything, social media is not 100% private.” While using her private account, there were times when the public could see her achievements or her runs. For example, if she completed a segment — a specific route where runners track their speed or the number of times they run it — her results would be recorded on a leaderboard. Whenever that happened, her activity was available to every user on Strava. Situations like these are rare but could be an important thing to keep in mind as a user.
Gayle Killam and Scott McEwen — two parents of Franklin runners — discuss how Strava privacy impacts their view of the app and their opinions on its safety. Killam, a running mom and previous Strava user, believes that “it [is] a gentler form of social media than [other apps]. It would be sad if something that is so generated by good activity starts to feel yucky.” Both Killam and McEwen enjoy tracking their sons’ activity on Strava and believe the app can be a good tool for athletic motivation.
Strava users should take any necessary steps to ensure their safety, including educating themselves on the possible risks, utilizing privacy tools, and using block or report buttons when needed, so they can utilize the app for health and fun. It’s all up to the user’s ideals and boundaries.
