Set activity privacy and map visibility via API

[larsakerson]

I think API write access for Activity privacy settings would be a useful addition to Strava because this would allow users to configure third-party apps to manage their Activity privacy settings with greater granularity than Strava offers through its current UI. I would like to be able to set both Activity visibility as well as Activity map visibility via API.

Ideally, Strava would also provide the ability to configure these defaults in-app. However, in lieu of more granular control over privacy defaults within the app itself, this would be a significant improvement to Strava's privacy features and one that would have a significant positive impact on user Trust & Safety. For example, it would allow a user to programmatically hide the entire map for their commutes, walks, or runs—which may tend to occur in more predictable zones and within a tighter radius of their residences and places of work—while configuring different default map visibility settings for bike rides or ski activities, which may occur over a wider map or have more anonymized location profiles by virtue of the type of activity.

[Annelyse]

I'm also waiting until the api gives permission to change the visibility of an activity. 
I record everything with my garmin device, but it would be nice, if I can automate the visibilty of the activity.
Walks, cycling tours shorter than 5km would stay private. And the rest could go public. 
For the moment, I find myself not recording activities, because I think it's not relevant for the followers, or I have privacy concerns about sharing. And I'm too lazy to change everything manually

[Annelyse]

Found out it is not necessary for my case, to change the privacy. It is possible to mute (hide_from_home) an activity. So it does not appear in the general feed.

And that is a good solution for me.

[ehershey]

I'm surprised this functionality isn't there. I would also love this for similar reasons as @zecanard. I want to keep my default activity visibility fairly locked down but then be able to super quickly mark races or other noteworthy activities as public without as many clicks as it takes in the app or website (automatically ideally). 

I think it's the same story with setting whether an activity is a race or not. It doesn't seem to be in the API and I would love to change that field automatically based on whether an activity corresponds to a race in my calendar, or with a quick simple utility. 

[zecanard]

I read somewhere that this API call used to be available years ago, but subsequently killed. I’m not sure why, and I would really like to see it reenabled. It would be very useful for people like me who keep most activities Followers because they’re mundane indoor workouts/commutes/etc., but who want to automatically mark outdoor runs as Public for competing on segments. Right now I have to go in and change the visibility manually every time.

[danw]

I imagine that this feature was killed due to concerns about it potentially being abused, or at least poorly implemented, by third party apps in a way that might leave users activity data public without their knowledge. That's understandable. But why Strava hasn't taken the step to implement finer privacy controls "in house" as a replacement is beyond me. Strava's business model depends on as many users making their data public as possible (to make the leaderboards more valuable) but it also depends on people trusting that the data that they want to keep private in Strava is, indeed, kept private. Finer privacy controls would promote both of these goals.