What business model do you suggest ? Relying on charitable donations to cover their costs ?

Uh... if you don't want Strava to "have your data", then don't use Strava... delete your account.  If you use Strava (which you must), then you need to understand that a) you signed an agreement for what they can do with the data and b) that they can't show you information without that data (your place on leaderboards, your best efforts, etc.).  I'm not really sure what your game is here - but honestly, you are making no sense to me.

Also... you do not have to pay Strava, they have a free tier, it just limits the functionality.  If you want that functionality, you have to pay.  Just like a mobile phone... you can buy one and not pay for mobile service, but then the phone is limited in what you can do with it... if you want to use the mobile network, then you pay for it.

Maybe you can clarify what it is you are looking for here - then this community can better help you achieve your goals?  Is it the ability to export your data from Strava (you can, and people here can help you with that).  Is it the ability to prevent others from seeing your rides/data on Strava (you can do that too - people here can help).   Let this community help you, by telling us what you are actually trying to accomplish, otherwise, it comes across as a rant.

@CAG

We do not require a subscription for you to access data you’ve uploaded to Strava. You have the ability to see the data you’ve chosen to sync or upload to Strava, at any time, for free. Additionally, there are multiple tools and features that all athletes, regardless of subscription status, can access and benefit from.

Some of our features do require a subscription. However, subscription-only features are typically enhanced analysis or visualizations of data that Strava built on top of athletes’ raw data. You do not need a subscription to access the data you provided to Strava.

Lastly, our terms of service, which you’ve agreed to upon account creation, state that “you own your content, but give us a right to use it”. If you’d like to move to another platform, you have the ability to export your data in bulk or delete your account, for free, at any time.

This is not true. Strava now charges for much access to the riders own data and puts up blocks to access and search that data effectively. You can not search and display only ride data from the specific day it was entered from the rider. Your search limitations do not give you correct results under date searches. When I first joined this was not an issue nor was  access to my training log but am now blocked because I will not pay for access... The Exact Message is

Analyze Your Training

Quickly scan your past activities to spot training patterns or trends

SUBSCRIBE

And the training log is greyed out behind it and inaccessible.

Strava has to give the user the ability to keep and use his own data and not share it.  I do already know about the free membership as I am using it and strava is trying to get me to subscribe to have access to my own training log which is 100% composed of my own ride data. This access used to be free and is now part of the subscription.

I suggest they use an honest business model and tell users upfront they are going to limit, and then take away user access to their own data over time and then charge them a subscription fee to get it back again. I have been a member for quite a few years and my previous access was not limited from all of my own data, but has become limited over time. Strava already makes the vast majority of their income from other means than changing their members to access their own generated data. They should not try to snake more away from users that have no desire to use their other features that do not involve their own specific data. That data is gathered by devices outside of Strava as I do not use the Strava App. If I used the Starva App I would not dispute paying for what it generated, but again I don't use it...

@CAG, you are correct - it used to be free, but in order to continue to exist, Strava needs to generate revenue.  You can still see all of your data in the "My Activities" page, and you can also download all of your data and visualize it in any way you see fit (the download all data is part of the 'delete account' page, but you don't have to delete you account, just go to that page).

The "Training Log" is a feature that requires a subscription - since Strava has to pay engineers to build this visualization, and pay product managers and designers to come up with the feature requirements, and pay support staff to support.  If you want the features that are behind the pay wall, then you need to pay the cost of a Starbucks Latte each month to get it, or download the data (free) and build your own data visualization.  

I think you are confusing data with feature.  They have not removed any access to your data, they have simply made some features "subscription features" and left some as "free features".  You have access to all of your data - if the subscription features are not compelling enough for you to pay, then you are correct to remain on the free plan, but then you need to build your own visualization.  If those features are important to you, then you need to pay.  

I think the issue you may have comes from when Strava made a determination on which features were no longer free - likely due to the cost of building and supporting those features.  At some point, if we want Strava to continue to exist (we do), then we need to be willing to pay to use the service... or be satisfied with what the free offering is.

@CAG - something in this comment caught my eye, which I think is a feature suggestion (also, look at my other reply to you on this thread regarding the 'free' vs. 'paid' aspect).  You are correct regarding the search capability (My Activities) - it is quite rudimentary, and you could put in a feature suggestion to enhance the ability to search for your activities (say by date, date range, distance, etc.).

How do you access the free version.

I have just downloaded it and the ONLY option offered is free trial followed by subscription. 

Thanks for any help.

Hey  , 
Thanks for your post. You can use Strava for free, without a subscription. We do offer additional features that are available under our Subscription service. You can read more about Strava Subscription here: Strava Subscription and Pricing. If you have a question about your account, please submit a support ticket and we can help you out.

Hello,

If is possible to use it for free, why I keep seeing a message of how many days I have left for a subscription. Am I going to be blocked to my account after those days if I don’t get a suscription?

If you are on a 'free trial' or 'subscription preview', then you are getting a glimpse at all of the features of Strava for a limited time (until that trial/preview period ends).  At that time, if you do not subscribe, you will still be able to use Strava, but only will have access to the free features (some of the features that you may have used in the trial period will no longer be available to you).

What an absolute load of bull.  I can't even see my past performance on segments past 4 or 5 of them.  Sure prevent access to leaderboards and other comparative features for those that don't pay, but Shkhara is right - denying access to our own data in the manner in which it had been free in the past is absolutely disgusting.  You are monetizing our data while preventing my ability to see past a very limited amount.  All I have to say to people, is that if you leave, make sure you delete all your activities.  This at least makes their service less valuable.  Simply stopping the use of Strava still makes your data valuable to them.  If only paying customers used Strava, it wouldn't be worth it.  In fact, as it is Strava will probably die a slow death because they certainly won't attract many new users with their pitiful offerings at the free tier.  The only non-paying members will be people that have years of data on there.

I think you must be a fairly new user.  Clearly you don't understand how Strava's popularity rose on the fact they offered a lot more at the free tier.  Like being able to see all of your activities.  The main leaderboard was free too.  As was your friends leaderboard.  That is what grew Strava into what it is today.  Without the social aspect and the Leaderboards which drives the competitors in us, it was just another activity tracking app.  Now all of a sudden they denied users access to that data even though Strava wouldn't have grown without the initial free users driving up the popularity.  As a free (and sometimes paying member), I contributed just by adding times to segments.  And in fact by creating a lot of segments.  Now I can't even see the times I had on the segments I created when I created them.  That's where the disgruntlement (if that's a word) comes from.

Strava officially sucks now.

Uh nope, think again, I've been a member since 2012, and have paid since about 2013.  And yeah, you used to get a lot more for free, this is how companies build a user base and figure out what works and doesn't (features).  You realize thought that all of this costs money right?  Storage and computation are not free, all the people working at Strava get a salary, that's not free.  Strava has to charge for the compelling features, or they simply won't exist.  It is naive to think you can just get all of this for free.  It isn't an overly expensive service - same as one or two lattes a month (depending where you get them).  

Yeah, I don't get lattes either, as they are overly expensive drinks for something you can make yourself.

I do realize that running servers, hosting data... takes money.  And I've paid for Strava before, only to see them ignore mountains of suggestions for the sports I use it for (mountain biking and classic nordic skiing). So I don't want all the crap they are slinging my way.  All the analytics that my Garmin app does much better? No thank you.  3D maps that are more confusing than anything?  No thank you!  They are churning out features a mile a minute, and going in the hole for it, and because of that they need to overcharge for the core features.  I bet if they limited themselves to segments and leaderboards, and canned all their engineers that are constantly coming up with more and more niche services to justify their jobs, they would be able to run the service for the cost of one latte for a year.  They could also keep costs low by charging everyone that one super low subscription fee for looking at their own data and their friends'.  Rather than forcing all the costs onto the few that find it worthwhile enough to  pay.

It pisses me to no end that I helped popularize the app by making a ton of the segments in my local area, but now I can't see my own data for those segments (nevermind compare myself to my friends on those segments).  Nor can I download the data for what makes those segments.  I can download the data for my activities, but I already have those.

Oh, sorry Fill, I didn't realize you were so influential in your community, you could apply for the 'verified on strava' badge, which will get you a full subscription, link below

https://www.strava.com/verifiedbadge