New Strava update lets users hide more data and maps

By Aug. 18, all Strava will give users more control over their privacy, with the new ability to change the visibility of their maps and biometric data. Subscribers will also be able to change how the maps themselves look.

Edit Map Visibility

“Simply put, we are giving athletes more control of privacy settings at both the default (account) level and at the individual activity level,” says a Strava representative. The company says the changes will enable better privacy and “give athletes more control over how they share their stories.”

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Strava has faced concerns about privacy in the past, and these new updates aim to help users feel safer uploading their activities. The new ‘Edit Map Visibility’ feature gives users three ways to hide their location. Using ‘privacy controls’ under ‘additional controls’, athletes can choose to hide up to 1 mile from the start/end of an activity at a specific location, hide up to 1 mile from the start/end of an activity regardless of where the activity started and ended or hide the map completely for all activities.

The controls can be applied as default settings (to all activity uploads) or applied to individual activities. Choosing to hide the maps completely will also hide it from the Global Heatmap.

Although users previously had the option to hide up to 1 mile from the start/end of an activity at a specific location, the hidden segment wouldn’t be hidden to users looking at their own activity. Strava says that, to give athletes “confidence that their choices have been implemented,” users will now be able to see what is hidden to others on their maps when viewing their own activities. The hidden segments are shown in grey while the portions of a ride visible to others will show up in orange.

Edit activities

All Strava users will soon be able to make other aspects of their rides private as well. Biometrics data, such as calories, heart rate, power (a big one) and pace can now be made private. For the Strava essayist, the company has now included a private note feature, that only the uploading athlete can see. Strava says the option to keep self-reflections separate from the public story was a popular request from athlete surveys.

Strava subscribers will also get the option to change the colour of their maps with the Personalized Stat Maps feature. Previously triggered by use of hashtags like #elevationmap, these data-driven polylines can be selected in the Save and Edit screens. Maps include elevation, gradient, heart rate, pace, temperature and time.