Exercise-tracking app Strava to give away data sweated out after four billion runs, rides and rambles
(2020/09/28)
- Reference: 1601255272
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/28/strava_free_data/
- Source link:
Exercise-tracking app Strava, notorious for inadvertently [1]revealing the location of military bases , will share a four-billion-record-strong dataset generated by its users in the name of assisting cities to plan for expected post-pandemic bicycle and walking booms.
An email sent to users over the weekend reminded users that Strava doesn’t just let them record their bike rides and track personal best efforts, but also sells the resulting data to urban planners as a product called “Metro” that’s touted as just the thing to inform development decisions about cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
The email to users referred to a [2]post in which the company said: “Across the globe, athletes have uploaded over four billion activities to Strava. When the community contributes their activities to Metro, they become a critical part of the world’s largest collection of human-powered transport information.”
The post added some age-of-COVID commentary: “The vast majority of cities are experiencing a boom in human-powered transportation. Vehicle traffic has plummeted, while bike sales have soared. Urban planners, now with empty streets and far less demand for parking, have inspiringly blank canvases.” Strava reckons planners also have a mandate to create bold designs and that its users have not just made themselves a part of its product but helped to create social capital.
Fitness freaks flummoxed as massive global Garmin outage leaves them high and dry for hours [3]READ MORE
Your humble hack knows more than a few cyclists who will probably accept that argument because cycling infrastructure is often spotty, while remaining sanguine about Strava’s problematic [4]potential leakage of users’ home addresses .
Strava points out that users can opt out of having their data collected for the ever-growing Metro dataset. However collection for Metro appears to be on by default in the Strava app and the opt-out feature is a couple of layers below the everyday UI.
The company won't share Metro data with just anyone, but mentions urban planners and bicycle advocacy groups as among those it will authorise to use the trove. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/29/strava_heatmap_military_base_locations/
[2] https://blog.strava.com/the-new-human-powered-era-20951/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/23/garmin_outage/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2018/02/08/strava_privacy_still_leakable/
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
An email sent to users over the weekend reminded users that Strava doesn’t just let them record their bike rides and track personal best efforts, but also sells the resulting data to urban planners as a product called “Metro” that’s touted as just the thing to inform development decisions about cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
The email to users referred to a [2]post in which the company said: “Across the globe, athletes have uploaded over four billion activities to Strava. When the community contributes their activities to Metro, they become a critical part of the world’s largest collection of human-powered transport information.”
The post added some age-of-COVID commentary: “The vast majority of cities are experiencing a boom in human-powered transportation. Vehicle traffic has plummeted, while bike sales have soared. Urban planners, now with empty streets and far less demand for parking, have inspiringly blank canvases.” Strava reckons planners also have a mandate to create bold designs and that its users have not just made themselves a part of its product but helped to create social capital.
Fitness freaks flummoxed as massive global Garmin outage leaves them high and dry for hours [3]READ MORE
Your humble hack knows more than a few cyclists who will probably accept that argument because cycling infrastructure is often spotty, while remaining sanguine about Strava’s problematic [4]potential leakage of users’ home addresses .
Strava points out that users can opt out of having their data collected for the ever-growing Metro dataset. However collection for Metro appears to be on by default in the Strava app and the opt-out feature is a couple of layers below the everyday UI.
The company won't share Metro data with just anyone, but mentions urban planners and bicycle advocacy groups as among those it will authorise to use the trove. ®
Get our [5]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/29/strava_heatmap_military_base_locations/
[2] https://blog.strava.com/the-new-human-powered-era-20951/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/23/garmin_outage/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2018/02/08/strava_privacy_still_leakable/
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Slight problem with that..
Routes are either workouts or existing commutes, ie, where riders have to go to get to work already, rather than a preferred shorter route.
Workouts are what's comfortable for a user in a loop so kinda irrelevant, commutes don't take into account what would be more direct routes but have to be avoided due to either being a car park (and therefore not fun to cycle down) or existing infrastructure blocking the way.
For example I live in Sydney's inner west and my office is on the North Shore which entails a commute through the City Centre. There's a nice long street I used to take before it was closed to road traffic in favour of a tram, so now I have to loop out of my way to cycle safely and legally (and that's in both directions). That's one example of many diversions I have to take over a more direct route for safety or legal reasons that if you were looking to fit a cycle lane would be obvious from staring at the map, however, Strava data is going to tell another story with many other cyclists taking similar diversions to myself.
Consultation with local commuters would be a better first step and they could be reached by local cycling advocacy groups (such as here with have BicycleNSW who will have lots of contact details through being an advocacy group and also offering insurance).
Also, what about those who have "kom's" that break the world bicycle land speed record, by several factors, not that I'm inferring they've cheated and it's complete bumk data, but..