How to Block Privacy in a Fitness App
Who knows where you ran last week? If you’re interested in privacy, it’s probably just you … and your running app. But our fitness apps often provide more information than we think. The Strava app, and now Polar Flow , has released maps showing potentially important military targets.
The military isn’t the only one to worry. Many of us, especially women, are wary of letting the world know where we live. (If you write things on the Internet, which sometimes lead people into a rage, be especially careful.) Here are a few basic tips on safety in any application:
- Don’t use your real name (and be careful when logging in with Facebook, which knows your real name). Try using an avatar that doesn’t show your face.
- Don’t track runs that start from your home.
- Keep your runs private by default.
- If possible, hide the time of your jogging so that the stalker does not know when to stop in your favorite park. (Keep in mind that there is a time stamp every time you share a post on social media.)
These rules may not work for everyone, because information only exists when we share it. Maybe you are logging your runs (which is tantamount to sharing data with the company that makes your app because you want to collect data for your own use. Perhaps you do all your runs in your area and want to share with friends. Maybe a stopwatch and a paper notebook is not for you.
So, if you want to keep your location and other information private, here’s what you need to block in each of the popular apps:
Polar flow
This is a site that has been in the news recently. (We’re confident that each of these apps will get headlines.) To keep your data private, the company recommends the following :
- Go to Settings and then Privacy to set the default for future launches to Private (other options are Subscribers or Public).
- Change the privacy of each of your past launches individually.
- To hide everything, set your profile (not just sessions) to Private.
Strava
Strava is a little more complex because there are many different ways to interact with other users (for example, all leaderboards). Strava claims that for maximum privacy, you can :
- Turn on Enhanced Privacy in the settings. This means that your full last name will not be displayed, and only your followers can see detailed information about your actions. People have to ask for approval if they want to follow you (just like a blocked Twitter or Instagram account).
- Turn on Private by default to keep activity information private only to you. This does not affect past performance. Private activities do not appear on leaderboards and will not appear in the next version of the public heatmap.
- Turn on enhanced privacy for group activity, which means that only your followers and the people you follow can see the activities you take as part of a group.
- Turn on Hide from Leaderboards. This does not affect the actions you have already taken.
- Turn on Hide from Flybys.
- Block anyone you don’t like. However: “Someone you have blocked will be able to see your activity record in public places such as segment leaderboards, club feeds and segment exploration, however, the blocked athlete will not be able to access your activity or profile page if they click on your entry. … “
- Turn on Hide Training Log. Your training log is private if you have enhanced privacy turned on, but you can also hide your training log even if you don’t.
- Set privacy zones around your home, work, and more. Strava will hide some of your activity that starts or ends in the privacy zone.
There are major trade-offs for each of these settings. For example, if the privacy zone only includes a few houses, people can easily spot the blind spot and guess which house is yours. And you are not eligible to participate on any leaderboards that start or end in the privacy zone – too bad if you have a great segment in your area.
And the caveats regarding the various privacy settings are confusing. For example, if you have enhanced privacy enabled: “Keep in mind that if you are not flagged as private, your activities will still be visible in public places such as Flyby, group action features, and segments, public clubs and lists. test leaders. In invite-only clubs, your actions on the leaderboards will only be visible to other members of the club. In addition, your profile can still be found using our athlete search, but you will only be able to see certain information on your profile page. ” Good luck.
RunKeeper
You can’t manage Runkeeper’s privacy settings from within the app, so you’ll have to go to the website. You can:
- Set up a personal account so that your profile does not appear in search results.
- Go to sharing settings and customize your activities, body measurements, and other information for Just Me or Friends. It doesn’t change your old activities.
- Change the visibility of the actions by setting individual actions – again, only from the website.
- To remove activities from your feed, there is also a Hide this option for every item in your feed. Again, only from the site.
Nike Apps
Changing your privacy settings in Nike Run Club also changes them for other apps (like Nike Training Club). You can:
- Set your profile to Just Me to keep everything private, or Friends to allow searches on your profile. In this case, people who are not (yet) your friends can submit a friend request and see your aggregate activity data.
- Apparently that’s all. You must decide whether to publish each individual launch to its own feed in the app, and from there to social media. You can also remove individual launches from your feed.
Fitbit
Activities on Fitbit are private by default, but you can share them with groups in the FItbit app (organized groups or “private groups” such as your friends list). You can also share them or not on other social networks.
To keep your profile private, Fitbit recommends the following :
- In the Account & Privacy section, you can make each element of your profile public, friends only, or private.
- Then scroll down and do the same with your badges and trophies, all-time stats, and your average daily steps.
- Keep scrolling to adjust privacy and on your charts.
You cannot change the settings in About Me or the date you joined; it is always public.