Remember privacy when posting your workout data
Recording activity helps us engage with exercise routine, but failing to understand the networks we use opens prominent people up to risk.
If as privacy lawyers we can give you one tip, let it be this: activity tracking platforms are social networks, and probably the most intrusive ones.
The popularity of fitness trackers and other wearable tech is showing no sign of dropping. The way we exercise was already shifting with the measurable self before the advent of daily exercise allowances last year.
The joy of tracking is comparing your performance to yourself and others, noting the miles as they clock up and feeling smug when you outperform your digital rivals. Common to many is aggregating that data on platforms such as Strava, MapMyRun and Garmin.
These apps are enormously beneficial for measuring performance and incentivising exercise, but they are also one of the riskiest services to use. Why? Firstly, people don’t think of them as a social network, so they don’t consider their privacy when sharing their workout data. Secondly, since the primary function people use them for is tracking an individual’s location you can end up sharing a lot more than just the minutes per mile on your last 5K.
These factors ring alarm bells for those who protect privacy for a living. The main risks are:
- Location tracking shows the start and finish points of exercise, enabling key locations such as your home and workplace to be identified.
- Likewise, showing routes and times when an individual is likely to be alone and not be paying full attention is a security risk. If you regularly run or cycle the same routes, this can leave your routines open to monitoring or more sinister behaviour.
- If you are supposed to be obeying lockdown rules, travel restrictions or quarantine, your workout location data can give away breaches. One to keep an eye on if you are in the public eye during a pandemic.
Most of our team use activity tracking apps and find them a great support to exercise but treat them as you would any other social network. Check the privacy settings and restrict them to the minimum needed to support your exercise aims, especially around who can see your workouts. You may want your friends and family to admire your elevation gain, but question whether you want the rest of the internet to as well. Also, obscure the start and finish point of your workouts from others – Strava and Garmin Connect both have functionality which allows you to do this, and there’s no good reason not to. You wouldn’t post your home address on Facebook along with the times you’re not in, so it’s best not to on activity tracking platforms either.
Enjoy your fitness tracker, chase those PBs and bask in the glory of protecting your private and personal information.
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