Running safe when you're a woman
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Analysis
We have to face the facts, without being alarmist, but the news has unfortunately proven that women who run can be easy a "target" for malicious people.
Busy days and tight schedules sometimes force you to go running early in the morning or late at night when it's dark. The music in the ears, the half-light, make one less attentive to the environment.
The other observation to be made is that with the development of racing application, the data of its routes and timetables can easily be accessible to malicious people. Fortunately there are ways to protect your data, but do you know them ?
Generalities
To ensure your maximum security, think of all these little things :
- - Run if you can during the day at the hours when you are likely to meet people and where you will be less isolated.
- - Try to vary your schedules, your routes and the days you go running as much as possible.
- - If you run with music, don't put it too loud to perceive the noises around you.
- - If possible try to take your phone with you.
- - Tell someone about the route you are going to take and the time you expect to run.
- - Avoid running in places where you will be lonely.
Confidentiality with Strava
Strava, certainly the most used application allows, if you don't protect your data, to have access to a certain amount of information such as timetables, places of departure and arrival, and even your photo.
A bad person could use this information to detect your habits like this example below.
Fortunately Strava allows you to control the information that you want to make visible and to whom.
To do this, click on your profile in the banner, then on settings and then on privacy controls.
Among the parameters to be adjusted, you can limit access to your personal information (name, activities, photos) by selecting only subscribers.
You can also limit access to the activities you record, by selecting only subscribers or only yourself.
You can also avoid appearing in group activities and "flyby" by adapting the options.
Flyby makes it relatively easy to find someone you have come across who also uses strava.
The flyby option can be limited to everyone or nobody.
The last interesting option of confidentiality for Strava is to delimit a zone of confidentiality by defining a radius around an address (your accommodation for example or your workplace).
All activities that start or end in this confidentiality area will not have their complete track. The departure and / or arrival will be hidden, thus protecting the exact address of your point of departure and / or arrival.
Confidentiality with Squadrunner
Another widely used application, Squadrunner, also provides access to a certain amount of information such as timetables, departure and arrival locations, and even your photo.
As in the example below.
Fortunately Squadrunner helps protect information related to activities and personal data.
You can at least limit access to all of your activities and thus prevent this information from being misused.