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Maps level of detail lost


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Since the past couple of weeks when I click on the map of an activity, I see the GPS track but the background map is just about empty. I used to get a proper map with paths, roads etc. that I could zoom in and out. What's supposed to pass as a map now is pretty useless. Anyone have an idea what changed?

Best answer by Jana_S

@Helenevg just out of curiosity, what kind of tracking do you mean? As Strava is designed for tracking… geographically. If it's web usage tracking, it's a different story of course, and Strava might need to look into it. 
edit: I looked up their website and indeed it's about gps location and such. Well - that's the purpose of Strava. So I’d say that rather the duckduckgo app should have an option to specifically allow sports trackers... 

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Jan_Mantau
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  • March 25, 2025

In which app/phone/browser do you have this problem?


Jana_S
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  • March 25, 2025

I recall similar issues described by users on android and using app protection on through duckduckgo, which appears to have caused the problem (if it's what you mean by the description):
 

https://communityhub.strava.com/devices-and-connections-6/the-activity-map-is-white-android-8511

 

 

 


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  • March 25, 2025

@Jana_S. Thank you for the quick and correct response. Now that I turned off app tracking blocking in duckgogo it looks like what I was used to.

However, I started using duckgogo for a reason. It turns out that Strava is one of the apps with sky high tracking request that are blocked by duckgogo. Sometimes more than 7000. For a paid subscription I don’t expect an app to do any data mining, and especially no this much. Strava fix this.


Jana_S
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  • March 25, 2025

@Helenevg just out of curiosity, what kind of tracking do you mean? As Strava is designed for tracking… geographically. If it's web usage tracking, it's a different story of course, and Strava might need to look into it. 
edit: I looked up their website and indeed it's about gps location and such. Well - that's the purpose of Strava. So I’d say that rather the duckduckgo app should have an option to specifically allow sports trackers... 


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  • March 26, 2025

@Jana_S Of course tracking GPS within activities is the whole purpose. I mean web usage tracking by third parties when using the app. ie Sharing my data for other purposes outside of Strava. I have to disable duckgogo so it stops blocking third party trackers, but this means having to share information I don't want to share in order for the app to work correctly.


Jana_S
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  • March 26, 2025

@Helenevg in the meantime, I also tried googling a bit more and found a mention of whitelisting Strava in duckduckgo at reddit - so maybe that could be a more suitable option for you? But I don't use it so I don't know how. 


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  • March 26, 2025

By whitelisting you mean Strava is excluded from duckgogo tracker blocking? That's what I needed to do to get the intended function of the app to work. But if that means allowing the 1736 trackers requested the last time I opened the app with duckgogo on, this is not something I want. Some information collected is understandable, like phone type, app version etc. But these third parties also collect name, email address, where you live, unique ID, android advert id etc.   


Jana_S
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  • March 26, 2025

Sorry, I really don't know any additional details - just as I said, someone mentioned whitelisting (vs. disabling duckduckgo completely), it sounds like you’ve already done that, so it's probably the best solution for now. 


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  • March 26, 2025

The only way, I'm afraid. But that means having to choose between crap maps or my personal information flying all over internet without knowing where it's going. So there's an explanation, but my problem with maps isn't really solved.

If you're interested in which companies are doing the tracking: Branch Metrics and Functional Software. Functional software seems to collect information relevant to running the app (screen resolution, OS build etc), but also privacy sensitive information that I don't see why they need it to get the app to work. The other one is Branch Metrics. Googling that its purpose is targeted advertising. Strava claims that with paid subscriptions they did away with advertising. Allowing this means it's not true.


Jana_S
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  • March 26, 2025

Thanks for the details - I don't use Android so I don't really have much of an insight. (I'm on iOS, that has the trackers control built in itself, and isn't causing this kind of problems with maps.)


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