Strava Closes the Gates To Sharing Fitness Data With Other Apps

The Verge's Richard Lawler reports: Strava recently informed its users and partners that new terms for its API restrict the data that third-party apps can show, refrain from replicating Strava's look, and place a ban on using data "for any model training related to artificial intelligence, machine learning or similar applications." The policy is effective as of November 11th, even though Strava's own post about the change is dated November 15th.

There are plenty of posts on social media complaining about the sudden shift, but one place where dissent won't be tolerated is Strava's own forums. The company says, "...posts requesting or attempting to have Strava revert business decisions will not be permitted." Brian Bell, Strava's VP of Communications and Social Impact, said in a statement: "We anticipate that these changes will affect only a small fraction (less than .1 percent) of the applications on the Strava platform -- the overwhelming majority of existing use cases are still allowed, including coaching platforms focused on providing feedback to users and tools that help users understand their data and performance."

The Strava platform?

[dfghjk]

"We anticipate that these changes will affect only a small fraction (less than .1 percent) of the applications on the Strava platform..."

What applications other than Strava are on the "Strava platform"? The intention, obviously, is to affect applications that use Strava while conveniently using the misleading term "Strava platform" to exclude those applications from discussion.

Also, how embarrassing is it that /. now steals content from The Verge, a site that's stealing their content from other sites, DC R

Re:The Strava platform?

[Vegan Cyclist]

There's one site I use (and paid a small fee to support) that allows you to upload all your rides, and it maps them out.

It's particularly helpful for me, as I organize a cycling challenge series that uses segments, and sometimes I want to find a ride where I went on a certain road, to see if there's a segment there or create one (in order to create a segment, you have to have ridden that portion of road or trail, etc..)

But the wider use of that site is just to easily see what days you've ridden on what roads. It connects via API.

I'm guessing that'll be affected. (It's relevant because Strava's built-in segment 'search' is terrible and doesn't show a lot of the segments. Remember that time you rode on that obscure road 5yrs ago? Good luck ever finding that ride otherwise.)

Really disliking how Strava is being run now.

They also recently banned ALL URLs.

And I mean ALL. Including Strava URLs.

So if you wanted to post a segment or route or Strava event or group link in a Strava comment, it would delete/hide it.

Same with any other URL of course.

A couple weeks later, they 'fixed' it so you could at least link to the Strava domain, but if you post an external link, it doesn't show.

Organizing an event with a registration page? Too bad.

Or just trying to share a link to an event? Nope.

And this literally just happened - a rider died in an accident during a cycling event here, couldn't share news stories, the GoFundMe or any other related info.

Strava is being run by clowns now.

You are the product

[mspohr]

You don't own your data.
Strava owns all the data and they can sell it to anyone for any purpose.
Stupid.

stravaleaks

[martin-boundary]

This might go some way to explaining what's going on here.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/stra... [lemonde.fr]

https://www.schneier.com/blog/... [schneier.com]

Another explainer

[necro81]

DCRainmaker [dcrainmaker.com] has been publishing reviews of fitness tech, etc., for years. He buys all his own stuff, spends weeks collecting data, and posts it for all to see. He's not shy about praising neat new features, or for calling out bad actors. He posted a video recently [youtube.com] with his take on what the new terms mean, and how shitty it's going to be for lots of users.