‘Home location users Strava easier to discover thanks to privacy function’

A privacy function of sports app Strava to protect a home or work location, Privacy Zone, makes it easier to discover that location. A security company reported this to Strava last year. It is unknown if there will be a fix.

The trick from security company Wandera uses triangulation at the spots where Strava starts relaying the location again. Because there are five fixed values ​​for the radius around the place that must be kept secret, in many cases it can be determined based on the data which location that exactly is by drawing a circle around the start and end points and see where they overlap, Wandera reports.

Privacy Zone is a feature to draw a circle around a location that users do not want Strava to upload to its database. Movements within that circle are then not visible on the public profile of users.

Strava has not specifically responded to this information, but says in a statement to The Verge that it will offer more privacy functions in the app in the coming weeks. According to Strava, developers had been working on the features for some time before Wandera and other companies reached out. Wandera told Strava of this leak in June of last year.

Strava’s privacy came to the fore when the locations of secret military bases turned out to be inferred from users’ data. Strava, which profiles itself as the social network for athletes, has 26 million users.

The place that should be kept secret is the place where the circles exactly overlap