Being social has a double implication, the boundary between public and private is often damaged by that thin line of performance that our ego constantly forces us to satisfy.
If at the beginning there was Facebook that questioned this DIY protagonism, once the exclusive prerogative of television and public personalities, with the spread of social media we can all have that minute of notoriety supported by likes.
Strava rode the wave, and together with the ability to record routes and monitor their improvements, they also decided to include the option of being able to complement our sports experience with photographs.
Of course, there is nothing more beautiful to have an app that allows us to track improvements, follow paths and share photos of our very specials by increasing the Kudos, the equivalent of the Facebook like.
Less beautiful is to find the cellar or garage open in the morning without our bicycle.
Coincidence?
No, in Strava, in addition to the photos, we have the ability to enter the model and weight of our bicycle in order to make the watt count even more truthful.
It is therefore very easy to go back to our home and see the model and color of the bike, especially if we share our ride once again on other social networks.
The picture of the situation becomes clearer for those with unlawful intentions. Photos of the very special, tour, departure and arrival times and our habits can become a possible object of study for malicious thieves who will certainly have no qualms about opening all the cellars or garages of the house one by one, especially if these are in a small residential context.
So what can we do to defend ourselves from thieves?
Just don’t post photos, avoid putting the bike model where required and identify yourself with a nickname instead of using your name and surname.
Strava allows you to make your profile private, an option that we can adopt by choosing to share our routes only to people we trust.
It is very simple if we use our name to be able to trace our identity on Strava from our Facebook profile and steal other information, including when we are away from home.
Just a posted photo of our newly purchased jewel and a search of our name on Strava and the thieves will know where to find us.
Another diversion, despite Strava by default from a not exactly precise starting position is to finish our training session earlier, thus avoiding giving a different location.
In short, being social doesn’t always pay off.
