Strava reveals locations of world leaders Trump, Putin and Macron

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Even the security guards of the world’s most famous people adhere to the principle: “If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen.”

An in-depth investigation of Le Monde revealed that Strava data could be used to track the movements of US leaders Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Le Monde identified 26 U.S. security officials who counted miles and received praise on the activity tracker during their official business trips.

Twelve members of the French presidential security group and six members of Russia’s Federal Security Service were also identified by the newspaper as regular Strava users. Her uploads were used to suggest locations of Russian President Vladimir Putin and French leader Emanuel Macron.

The French media dug so deep in its “Strava Leaks” series that it was even able to determine exactly where Macron was vacationing in 2021.

Le MondeThe investigation also found that the locations of current and future first ladies Jill Biden and Melania Trump could be identified through the Strava profiles of their security teams.

This was announced by the US security service Le Monde Staff were prohibited from using personal electronic devices while on duty. However, what they do outside of duty hours is their own business.

“The affected personnel have been notified,” the service said Le Monde. “We will review this information to determine if additional training or guidance is required. We do not believe there has been an impact on safeguarding measures or threats to safeguarding individuals.”

Hides from the heatmap

This isn’t the first time location security has brought Strava into the headlines.

In 2017, the platform released global “heatmaps” that highlighted all of its users’ preferred routes. These included the “heat marks” left by personnel training at military bases in Afghanistan, Djibouti and Syria.

Something similar happened in 2022, when Strava sniffer dogs identified and tracked security personnel working from bases in Israel.

Of course, users have the option to set their activities to “private” and thus remove their workouts from the public feed.

However, Strava still aggregates “private” activities into its “community-based features” – including its global heatmaps.

Users must disable this automatic registration through their profile privacy settings.

“Strava Metro, the Global Heatmap, Points of Interest, and start/end points are examples of community-driven features. They improve the Strava experience. These features bring together the collective knowledge and route usage of athletes to help the Strava community find places to run, bike and walk. All data is aggregated and anonymized,” says a statement on Strava’s privacy controls page.

According to Strava, 120 million athletes in 190 countries use its platform. The 2023 Annual Review reported that more than 10 billion activities were uploaded in the last 12 months.

The hugely popular training app recently launched a new feature designed to increase users’ awareness of their personal safety.

A recent app update now prompts users to edit their activity – and potentially make it private – via the pop-up “Quick Edit” screen. However, hiding data from global heat maps requires another click.