VicBC_Biker

Just 'signed up' at Strava a couple of weeks ago. I 'had to do it' to see a ride a friend had done.

Does anybody except me find it 'creepy' when Strava announces:
And then they list people I do know......
Exactly how do they know that info?
It's the same reason I don't like FaceBook.
Too old, I guess..still value my privacy and 'have issues' with surveillance capitalism.

guachi

Presumably at some point you gave it access to your Facebook profile or some other list of contacts.

spelger

i would assume strava knows becasue you are either following them or they you.

mstateglfr 

I find it no more or less creepy than all the other social network platform apps that do the same thing.

VicBC_Biker

My FaceBook profile is as anonymous as possible - email is about the only info they have been given (knowingly) by me. I have zero 'friends' on Facebook, and never use Facebook to 'Sign In' to other sites.

I guess I'm wondering whether Strava/FaceBook are harvesting email address books or email contacts??

Koyote

I don't find 'anything creepy' about it. It's how 'social media sites' operate. It helps put the 'social' into it. If you don't like it, I'm guessing you can 'deny Strava access' to your 'contacts.'

chaadster

Is this thread a pitch for the redux of Encino Man? “Caveman thaws from block of ice to discover bizarre new world… He’s proof evolution is not an exact science.”

Rolla

VicBC_Biker

How did Strava 'get' those 'contacts' ? And I don't believe that even if I could 'deny' Strava access, that it would stop them from grabbing the data anyway.

shelbyfv

There are a bunch of privacy and notification options. Takes awhile to sort through them. Or just don't use it....

VicBC_Biker

Here's a 'real world' analogy:
You go into a bike shop for the first time. You don't know anybody there. When they are getting the invoice ready, they ask for your phone number.
As soon as you give it to them, they start reciting a list of your friends from the past 20 years, and showing you their pictures.

Would that be 'normal'? 'welcome'?

I wouldn't be comfortable in a place where my name and address was displayed on a large roadside screen if I crossed against the amber light, but that happens, too.....

Anyway, I didn't think Strava advertised itself as a 'social media' site.

Would folks here be happy if BikeForum harvested their email contacts (and sold them)?

unterhausen

If you really didn't follow anyone on Strava, then you need to do a better job managing cookies on your browser. I imagine Facebook will sell anything they know about you. Between google and facebook, they are very good at figuring out your contacts. Are you an android user?

Koyote

I can’t ‘answer’ those ‘questions.’ But I’ll bet Strava ‘has’ a page with that ‘info.’

Or perhaps Strava is ‘not’ for you.

VicBC_Biker

Do you mean at:
https://www.strava.com/settings/privacy

I don't see a setting for "Don't allow Strava to harvest your personal data from your computer and sell it without informing you."

And I certainly didn't see a warning when I was forced to 'Register' at Strava before I could open the link a friend sent me.

It would be 'bad for business' if Strava let users know what they were doing with their data.

The old adage is true: "If you aren't paying for an online product, you are the product". Except that now, even paying probably (definitely) doesn't insure your privacy.

In a culture where millions of people pay to have monitoring microphones in their homes, I'm a definite 'outlier'.

I'll quit ranting on this topic, for now!

Cpn_Dunsel

George Orwell would be shocked at the extent to which modern people surveil themselves and willfully consent to giving up their privacy.


All this to simply because so many people have strong need to flex in sight of an audience and gain affirmation for their efforts.

scottfsmith

On the phone app go to Settings .. Contacts .. and disable the "Access to contacts" there. That will stop them harvesting your contacts.

Troul 

worse could be; You walk into the random lbs to go look & potentially buy a new bicycle. The clerk has on the counter a tube, some random hardware, & an invoice. You walk up to them to ask if they could assist you, but before you could ask, they hand you that invoice to which is for the tube & hardware to repair your broken bicycle at home since the lbs calculated your thoughts before you could & figured out that you couldn't see paying the price tag for the bicycle that you were about to look at & want after asking for assistance.

shelbyfv

Yep, 'end of thread.'

gregf83 

It likely occurred when you initially registered. Lots of sites make it 'easy' to register by using your credentials from Facebook, Google or Apple. This eliminates the need to create an email based account (and remember another password) but it also generally comes with the price of sharing your contacts. If you sign up with an email address they shouldn't have access to your contacts.

VicBC_Biker

??
Phone- that thing on the wall? I don't think it has apps...
Or the little one I keep charged up 'for emergencies'? It's around here someplace...lemme see....

VicBC_Biker

Correct.

surak

They get your email address from friends' contacts and friends lists. If you value your privacy, don't use the same email address or phone number that you give those who don't care if Strava or other online platforms access their data.

Cpn_Dunsel

Those people that feel this current trend of apps being used for everything is not a big deal seem fully ignorant of the power and capabilities corporations gain from data harvesting. The info they gain from having people use their apps exponentially increases their abilities to manipulate us and serves to make it harder to create a shared reality between people. What is being sold as a connecting force is really being used as a tool for spying, controlling and dividing.


The modern use of cell phones to surveil and collect data is reshaping the world in ways that will soon not just eliminate any sense of privacy but also be able to curtail freedoms by limiting access to areas and events.

gringomojado

Yes! A I the only one without a smartphone?

billridesbikes

My two cents, it’s an AI or machine learning routine, maybe an unsupervised learning algo. It doesn’t really need emails or contacts, per se. It looks for people on Stava doing similar things at similar times to you and suggests them based on a big data correlation.

To use your bike store analogy, you go in a buy several items over several trips. The data base for the bike store has a list of what people bought similar or correlated items and in what order. They can then use that to predict what you’ll like or buy next. Amazon and Netflix use similar algorithms for things or movies, Strava is using it for people.