Bob Loblaw wrote:
dAsh. wrote:
On a similar note, I make a point of never making an activity public if I started or finished it within a certain radius of my house. My husband, however, used to share workouts that literally started at our front door. That extra level of security had just never occurred to him, because he is a man and doesn't naturally think about safety precautions the same way women have to. (That said, he cringed when he saw this report, so at least he gets it when it comes to national security, ha.)
1) I set up 'privacy zones' around a few spots - my parents' houses, the kid's school - so that none of that information is easily available to someone who just clicks on my profile. (our house is one of 1400 apartments in our complex, so i don't bother w/one there).
2) I assume that those privacy zones don't really do that much. They just make it so that if someone is after me, they'll need to do modicum of legwork to figure out my more precise locations.
3) But: i'm just a guy. I've got zero security clearances or anything like that.
I still don't get how people didn't realize that a location tracking ap was tracking their location.... Other activity tracking apps like RunKeeper are private by default and you have to specifically seek out friends to share activities with if you are so inclined. Some people assume that Strava is the same way -- a basic activity tracker. The public and social media aspects don't cross their minds.
To your first points, I was simply giving an example of how something Strava-related was obvious to me but not my husband. Similarly, something like public Strava heatmaps showing workout locations is obvious to us but not others. We are triathletes who care about performance, so it makes sense that we're more aware of Strava's capabilities. Others are simply logging their required workout times and making sure they can pass a physical fitness test, so it's not a stretch to assume that they don't think about the app beyond start/stop/time/pace.
(To delve a little deeper in response to your 1-3: The privacy zones are great. I wasn't saying that men don't take safety precautions; just that they don't have to think about those things at the same level as women unfortunately do. For example, even though you're one of 1400 apartments, if you workout at similar times from day to day, it wouldn't be too difficult for someone to track you down. One of my college roommates was attacked outside of our apartment building due to a sick person simply knowing our apartment complex -- our apt was one of hundreds -- and observing her work patterns. Since you're a man, odds are you don't have to worry about that and therefore your brain doesn't *automatically* go there.)