If someone wants to find out who you are and where you live, it’s quite easy. If you have a super common name, it’s a little tougher. I research people as part of my job and it’s pretty amazing how much public information is out there unless you’re very diligent in keeping it private (such as putting your house in the name of an LLC or Trust).
I’m not defending Strava, but staying off of it will not keep you safe.
As a regular person, unless you happen to have a stalker, Strava shouldn’t be a threat. A public person, like a pro, should certainly be careful. A lot of pro triathletes are smart enough to not start from their residence, especially female pros. Sadly, everything needs to be shared, thus Strava exists to publicize more information about everybody.
MattHatter wrote:
in light of the murder of the runner at U of Georgia I've seen lots of chatter on social media about posting Starva workouts, especially females who often run alone early in the morning.
if I was a coach there's no way I'd want my runners (male OR female) giving out their locations. they could use Strava but keep it private.
discuss.
I have warned my daughter about this.
A long time ago I had a Garmin and lost it. I regularly uploaded my runs to GarminConnect (or whatever it was at the time). A few days after I lost it, I got home and there was a note on my door from a guy saying he had found it.
I called. We met. I asked him how he found me. He said he flew drones for the Air Force and knew the Garmin recorded routes. So he uploaded the files and saw that many of my runs originated from a spot (my home) and found it.
It sort of creeped me out. I was appreciative of his effort, but I also thought that this could be used by bad people.
Uuuuuuuu wrote:
What about checking-in at locations on Facebook and Instagram? They’ll have to give that up for safety reasons too.
As with most things there are tradeoffs. First, being a guy, I (thankfully) do not worry about this. I had one very minor stalking incident involving a woman, but I never felt threatened.
For me a big difference is that I might check in at a bar or restaurant and never go there again. In fact I use FB check in to track places I eat and drink as a record (also the remember if I liked it or not---traveling can make it hard to recall).
With my running or cycling routes, I am often starting from the same spots over and over and over. How many runs did I start from my house back in the day? Or work if I ran at lunch? There is a lot more of a pattern.
Also, people are often alone when running and not so when at a bar/restaurant. Yes, if you hike at a certain trail over and over you will get that same pattern.
Mountain Master wrote:
Has there ever been an instance of anyone being stalked on Strava and then being attacked?
I feel confident that this is NOT what happened to the woman in Athens.
letsrun haters are lame wrote:
This murder has nothing to do with Strava. Has there been a single article linking the two? Did the victim even have a Strava account?
You know it is okay to use one incident to raise concerns about another.
If any woman would like to stalk me, my flyby is on.
Or we could address the underlying issue that she was killed by an illegal and if he hadn't been here this likely wouldn't have happened. Another reason to close our boarders and only allow people to enter legally.
bloviating wrote:
As a regular person, unless you happen to have a stalker, Strava shouldn’t be a threat. A public person, like a pro, should certainly be careful. A lot of pro triathletes are smart enough to not start from their residence, especially female pros. Sadly, everything needs to be shared, thus Strava exists to publicize more information about everybody.
Strava has risks.
yes. Mo Wilson, an up-and-coming cyclist, was murdered in Austin, Texas, in 2022. The killer tracked her movements on Strava.
