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How To Secure Your Strava Account

Strava is a website and mobile app used to track athletic activity via GPS and has become very popular in recent years. Some of its features include

• Ability to track activities over time
• See who can post the fastest time for a segment
• Join clubs and see what your club-mates are doing
• Follow professional athletes.

The ability to see what others are doing make Strava very popular but it is also one of its biggest security risks. The problem is that criminals can follow your activities and see where you cycle. A recent article  published on StickyBottle suggests that thieves use Strava and other sites to find homes with expensive bikes. One of my cousins had a bike stolen recently and the police came to the conclusion that Strava played its part in identifying where his bicycle was stored.

There are steps you can take to make your Strava profile more secure and you can also hide your home location so potential thieves cannot locate you on a map. This will not prevent all risks, a thief could still see that you go out on regular cycles and covertly follow you home.

Changing Security Settings in Strava

You should log onto Strava on a desktop computer to change your security settings. The mobile app does not give you the same number of options. Click on the settings option in the top right hand corner.

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”44″ img_size=”full” onclick=”link_image” css=”.vc_custom_1445617256386{border: 3px solid #939393 !important;}”][vc_column_text]Once you are on the settings page you need to change a number of things.

1. Set Enhanced Privacy Mode to On
2. Setup Hide your house/office on your activity maps. It suggests typing in your home address but I would use an address that is very close to my home. Use something like a grocery store.
3. Tick the option to make all activities Private Activities

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Finally, be careful with who you allow to follow your profile. Once you have enhanced security in place other Strava users must send a request to follow your profiles. As with most social networks, unless you have met the person in real life don’t believe what they say or who they are.

I have also created the video below which shows you how easy it is to track Strava users and how you can secure your profile.[/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/ZwbWtZvXMGE” css=”.vc_custom_1445618435695{border-top-width: 3px !important;border-right-width: 3px !important;border-bottom-width: 3px !important;border-left-width: 3px !important;border-left-color: #a0a0a0 !important;border-left-style: solid !important;border-right-color: #a0a0a0 !important;border-right-style: solid !important;border-top-color: #a0a0a0 !important;border-top-style: solid !important;border-bottom-color: #a0a0a0 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row]