Re-Enable Flyby Feature on All Public Profiles

[anchskier]

Years ago, Strava unilaterally disabled the flyby feature on all profiles.  They did this without any kind of notice so most people figured the feature was removed completely.  Only those who dug around could find that it was a toggle setting in the privacy settings that had to be manually enabled for each person.  Only a small number of people figured this out and re-enabled it on their profiles.  This action by Strava essentially destroyed the very fun and useful tool.  

Flyby is used by many after rides and events to relive how the ride/event unfolded.  See where I got away from the group.  See where others were faster or slower.  See how close I was to catching that guy ahead of me or how close the guy behind me was at some point in the race.  

This feature should be re-enabled on all "public" profiles.  People with profiles set to private could have it remain disabled unless they have specifically enabled it.  This will help maintain the privacy and address the concerns some had that people would use the feature to "stalk" them after crossing paths out on a ride/run.  Strava should publish a notification of this change a week or so prior (possibly multiple notifications to ensure people saw it) so users would have sufficient time to choose for themselves whether to go along with re-enabling the flyby feature or opting to keep it disabled.  This leaves the choice in the hands of the user.  

This was once a great feature, but was broken when Strava made their change.  Please consider reversing that decision.  By implementing sufficient notice and only applying it to profiles that are already "public", it will maintain the privacy of those who have concerns and allow people the opportunity to disable it if they so choose.  

[ChrisBerry]

I support this 100%. 

[Soren]

Thanks for sharing this suggestion on the Flyby feature. We understand that many of you have come to enjoy this feature and find it useful for a multitude of reasons. At this time, we are not considering reverting any changes. As always, we value your opinions and feedback. This idea will be marked as archived, but we will continue to monitor this thread and welcome anyone to share their thoughts and comments on the topic as long as they respect our Community Standards.

As a refresher for anyone who isn't familiar with this feature: 

The Flyby feature on Strava is available on your activities when both of the following conditions are true:
 
- Your activity’s privacy control is set to ‘Everyone’. Please note that the individual activity’s privacy control is different from the default activity privacy control found in your account settings. More information can be found here: Activity Privacy Controls

- Your account’s Flyby privacy control is set to ‘Everyone’. This setting is found on your Privacy Controls settings page on the Strava website or via Settings → Privacy Controls in the Strava mobile app.
 
If either of the two settings described above are not set to ‘Everyone’, you will not see the Flyby feature displayed on your activity.Additionally, an activity whose map has been entirely hidden by its Map Visibility settings will not be eligible for Flyby. Learn more about editing your activity’s or account’s Map Visibility settings here: Edit Map Visibility

For more information, please refer to our support article on Flybys Privacy Controls.

[anchskier]

@Soren - Why won't you at least leave it open to voting to gauge the interest level from the users rather than archive it?  Are you afraid that the users, the ones paying your wages, may think differently than you guys do?  Strava made an uninformed knee-jerk reaction regarding privacy.  I am just trying to suggest that it be reconsidered but you are apparently trying to hide it in the archive.

[Luko79]

@Soren if you dont set it to ON for all public activities, make a pop-up banner on the top in the app periodically that "Hey, there is a fly-by feature what is DISABLED at You at the moment but with this cool feature You can know who passed You in front, who overtook You, who You overtook, who did  you miss just with a few secs at a place, and can build up a cycling social life! Do not hesitate, ENABLE IT TODAY!" 

This is what an app should work imho. 

[ChrisBerry]

I agree with @Luko79. At the very least you should make users aware that the feature exists.  

[canadasian]

I imagine this is a security concern also. 

[LastLamplighter]

Ask your mates to turn it on. That's what I did. Agree it's fun to replay sportive. But it's a huge stalking risk so I understand why they have it off by default.