Strava - Do you know who's following you?

average_runner wrote: »

Am i the only runner not to of used Strava? I just use Garmin connect!

Had an account for a year roughly, but got rid of it over 2 years ago. I started using it because a bunch of people I ran with used it and I thought why not.
I suppose you can get out of it whatever you want - all the stats, segments, what distance and sessions other runners you know are doing.
But for me it nearly became a thing of me judging my own progress against what others were doing in terms of times and weekly distance and it became a distraction from my own training.
Nail in the coffin was a bunch of requests to follow me - profile pics of scantily clad women with no runs on their account - has this happened to anyone else? I thought either my training is finally paying off or this is a scam.
Don't miss it at all, Garmin Connect has everything I need.

rom wrote: »

I use Strava but set my location to another country and have a different name, privacy zones and locked down my profile. If an employer was seeing that I was running a bit too much during the day etc and asked questions they would have a lot of evidence. From people using Strava to rob bikes to this it is silly if you have your profile fully open.

is the employer point in terms of working from home? Surely your employer has no influence over how you spend your free time?

ultrapercy wrote: »

is the employer point in terms of working from home? Surely your employer has no influence over how you spend your free time?

Some people would spend 90 mins at lunch running, but be the first to log on late and off early!! These are the ones companies be after, not the ones doing their 90 min run, starts work at 9 and stays on till 630

Am I the only one who doesn't really give a sh!te about this? If I were female, I would. If I had a few Picassos in my gaff, I would.

But as it is....... Nah.

I suppose I might add a third 'if'. If I lived in a place with a lot of break-ins and stuff but that's linked to the Picassos (gold/diamonds/safe full of money)

So, basically, I don't care who's following me or if they can figure out where I live and work.

Itziger wrote: »

Am I the only one who doesn't really give a sh!te about this? If I were female, I would. If I had a few Picassos in my gaff, I would.

But as it is....... Nah.

I suppose I might add a third 'if'. If I lived in a place with a lot of break-ins and stuff but that's linked to the Picassos (gold/diamonds/safe full of money)

So, basically, I don't care who's following me or if they can figure out where I live and work.

Have you ever had a break-in?

I don't have any Picassos or live in a place with a lot of break-ins but the fear you get driving in your gate to your home, your safe haven, heavily pregnant and with a 4 & 2 year old strapped in the back of the car to see a broken window/door looming in front of you...

It's no harm to be careful, you just never know.

Itziger wrote: »

Hey, fair enough. I agree fully. I'd say the chances of the break-in happening because of a running app though are small. If people feel safer using a 'blackout' zone or whatever it's called, go for it.

most breakins are not oppertunist, they are based on information gathered from somewhere. I don't spend much time worrying about it either but its not a far fetched idea that information gathered off social media is being used for nefarious purpose. Many of those on strava have expensive equipment in sheds and attics. The average take from a burglary is about 200 euro (and a lifetimes personal security)so no Picazzo isn't a deterrent.Certainly forwomen whos exercise is carried out in isolated places at similar times of day or week its definitely something to keep in mind.

RacoonQueen wrote: »

You might find it a bit different if someone you don't know who was following you turned up to the place you trained every tuesday at 1pm and started taking pictures of your chest or ass. Or just randomly started turning up and just standing there. No matter what your gender is that is uncomfortable.

I think I would yeah.

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Well fcuk it!!!!

I live in the sticks so my address is a bit like “half a mile up the road from Main Street near Cooley Phat Willies”!!!

It doesn’t seem to take a bloody eircode!

TbL

I had the same issue. I set up privacy zones years ago on it where you dropped a pin and the exclusion zone was a straight 1km radius around it, had dropped two zones so I had roughly 1km either side of me. Just checking there now my pins had moved to nearest address on map which is a townland a mile down the road and neither privacy location was covering my house anymore! :eek: Couldn't find any address or townland that would cover me.

Luckily you can put in coordinates. If you find your location on google maps and right click you can copy the coordinates and use them on strava.

https://www.google.com/maps/
53.124743083926255, -6.502321864340983

So if you set up zones a few years ago I'd check they are still where you left them!

charlieIRL wrote: »

There was a lady runner attacked only last week - she was out running on the greenway, early morning, (don't want to say where) but some guy came up and grabbed her. Thankfully a cyclist was coming and startled the attacker and the lady got away. No doubt this will have a shocking effect on the poor person.

Not putting 2 + 2 together but if someone was putting there routes / times on strava etc it could be easy for creeps to figure out your routine.

Amazing how these stories grow legs. I presume you are referring to the incident near Mullingar on the greenway? It appears that the lady in question genuinely thought she was being chased but that the "chaser" was oblivious and was merely out for a couch to 5k run/walk/run. The cyclist in question clarified the matter. The lady wasn't grabbed - presume that was just Chinese whispers!

This got me thinking since about how many people I may have inadvertently freaked out when doing intervals that happen to end when I am near a walker.

EC1000 wrote: »

Amazing how these stories grow legs. I presume you are referring to the incident near Mullingar on the greenway? It appears that the lady in question genuinely thought she was being chased but that the "chaser" was oblivious and was merely out for a couch to 5k run/walk/run. The cyclist in question clarified the matter. The lady wasn't grabbed - presume that was just Chinese whispers!

This got me thinking since about how many people I may have inadvertently freaked out when doing intervals that happen to end when I am near a walker.

Poor lady. The threat may not have been real in this instance, lucky for her it wasn't, but the fear she felt was still very real.

Beanstalk wrote: »

Yeah i'm always conscious of this doing hill intervals, you jog down slowly past someone walking up hill and say hello and then next thing they know you're tearing back up the hill at full pelt behind them again. I can understand how that could really freak someone out.

I've been responsible for a few screams this winter. Tearing past walkers with headphones and they jump.