Strava Activity Privacy: Why Your Workouts Are Private and How to Change It

Why is my Strava activity only visible to me?

If your Strava activities are only visible to you, it's almost certainly due to your privacy settings, either for individual activities or your default account-wide preferences, which are designed to give you complete control over who can view your fitness data.

Understanding Strava's Privacy Controls

Strava, like many fitness tracking platforms, is built around a blend of social interaction and personal data management. To achieve this, it offers robust privacy controls that dictate who can see your activities, maps, and other performance metrics. These settings are highly customizable, allowing athletes to tailor their experience from fully public sharing to complete privacy. The most common reason an activity is private is simply that a privacy setting has been activated, either intentionally or inadvertently.

Common Reasons for Private Activities

Several factors can lead to your Strava activities being set to "Only You":

• Default Activity Privacy Setting: When you create a Strava account, or sometimes after an app update, your default privacy setting for all new activities might be set to "Only You." This means every activity you upload will automatically be private unless you manually change it.
• Individual Activity Privacy Setting: Even if your default setting is public, you might have manually toggled an individual activity to "Only You" during the upload process, when editing the activity, or even after it has been posted. This is often done for specific workouts you wish to keep private, such as a test run or a recovery session.
• Privacy Zones: While not making the entire activity private, if you have set up Privacy Zones around your home or work, Strava will automatically hide the start and end points of activities that begin or end within these zones. This can sometimes lead users to believe the whole activity is private, though the rest of the route remains visible according to your general settings.
• Unsaved Changes or Upload Issues (Less Common for "Only You"): In rare cases, if an activity upload was interrupted or not properly saved, it might default to a private state until fully processed or could appear to be private if not fully synced. However, this is less common than explicit privacy settings.

How to Adjust Your Default Activity Privacy

Changing your default privacy setting ensures that all future activities are uploaded with your preferred visibility.

On the Strava Mobile App:

1. Navigate to your Profile icon.
2. Tap the Settings icon (gear icon) in the top right corner.
3. Select Privacy Controls.
4. Tap Activity Visibility.
5. Choose your preferred default: Everyone, Followers, or Only You.

On the Strava Website:

1. Log in to your Strava account.
2. Hover over your Profile Picture in the top right corner.
3. Click Settings.
4. Select Privacy Controls from the left-hand menu.
5. Under "Activity Controls," find Activity Visibility and choose your preferred default.

How to Change Privacy for Individual Activities

If you want to change the visibility of an activity that has already been uploaded, or if you want to make a single activity public despite your private default:

On the Strava Mobile App:

1. Go to the specific activity you wish to edit.
2. Tap the three-dot menu (More options) in the top right corner.
3. Select Edit Activity.
4. Scroll down to Privacy Controls.
5. Tap Visibility and choose Everyone, Followers, or Only You.
6. Tap Update Activity (iOS) or the check mark (Android) to save your changes.

On the Strava Website:

1. Go to the specific activity you wish to edit.
2. Click the pencil icon (Edit Activity) on the left side of the activity details.
3. Find the Privacy Controls section.
4. Select your desired visibility: Everyone, Followers, or Only You.
5. Click Save.

Understanding Activity Visibility Options

Strava offers three primary levels of activity visibility:

• Everyone: This is the most public setting. Your activity will be visible to all Strava users, appear in public leaderboards for segments, and be discoverable by anyone who searches for your activity or profile (unless other profile-level privacy settings are engaged).
• Followers: Your activity will only be visible to users who follow your Strava account. It will appear in their activity feeds. While the activity itself is restricted, your efforts on segments may still appear on leaderboards unless you've specifically opted out of segment leaderboards in your privacy settings.
• Only You (Private): This setting makes your activity completely private. Only you can see it. It will not appear in anyone's feed, on any segment leaderboards, or in any public searches. This is ideal for sensitive data, recovery workouts, or activities you simply don't wish to share.

Important Privacy Considerations

Beyond the main activity visibility, Strava offers additional granular controls:

• Privacy Zones: As mentioned, these allow you to hide the start and end points of your activities within a specified radius (e.g., around your home or office) while keeping the rest of the activity public.
• Map Visibility: You can choose to hide all map data for an activity, even if the activity summary remains public. This is useful if you want to share your stats but not your exact route.
• Group Activity Visibility: If you record an activity with other Strava users, your privacy settings interact. If you set your activity to "Only You," it won't appear in the group activity, even if others in the group have made theirs public.
• Flybys: This feature allows other Strava users who crossed paths with you during an activity to see your activity on a map. You can disable Flybys entirely or restrict them to only your followers.
• Profile Visibility: Ensure your overall profile settings align with your activity visibility. A public activity on a private profile might still limit who can find you.

Why Privacy Matters: A Kinesiology Perspective

From an exercise science standpoint, the decision to make activities public or private can have psychological impacts. For some, the social validation and competitive aspect of public sharing on platforms like Strava can be a powerful motivator, fostering adherence and pushing performance. Seeing friends' progress or competing on segments can enhance engagement. However, for others, the pressure of public performance can be detrimental, leading to anxiety or an unhealthy focus on external validation rather than intrinsic enjoyment and physiological adaptation.

Furthermore, personal safety and data security are paramount. Sharing routes that start or end at your residence, for example, can inadvertently disclose your home address. Understanding and utilizing Strava's privacy settings allows you to balance the benefits of social fitness with personal security and mental well-being, ensuring your fitness journey remains safe and enjoyable on your own terms.

Conclusion and Best Practices

If your Strava activity is only visible to you, it's a feature, not a bug, designed to give you control over your data. Regularly reviewing your Strava privacy settings is a best practice to ensure your activities are shared exactly as you intend. Take a moment to check both your default activity privacy and the settings for individual activities, especially after app updates or if you've been experimenting with different sharing preferences. By understanding and utilizing these robust controls, you can tailor your Strava experience to perfectly align with your personal fitness goals and privacy preferences.