Women report stalkers abusing exercise apps to harass them

It happened on an International Women's Day ride: a group of women cyclists had stopped at a cafe in Melbourne's north-east, refuelling midway through their route.

Bianca Pickett, a 51-year-old who works in IT, was sitting opposite an 18-year-old woman, Amy*, who gasped as she checked her phone.

"Amy said, 'Oh my god, this man has been messaging me on Strava for a couple of weeks; he just said he saw me on the road, and he's going to come and say hi.'" Pickett said.

Strava is the most popular fitness app that uses GPS-based activity tracking. It is also a social networking platform, allowing people to follow and message others, and see each other's running or cycling routes.

Pickett asked Amy for his name, before shuddering; he was well-known for this kind of predatory behaviour.

"He ingratiates himself to younger women," Pickett said.

"He tries to isolate them, so he sends them messages, then tries to go on a ride with you, then befriends you. I hate to think what else has happened."

Amy, she said, was "terrified" when he arrived at the cafe. Pickett reassured her she would handle the situation, and told him it was a women's only ride.

While he begrudgingly left, Pickett said the man continued to follow the women on his bike, all the way back to Melbourne.

"I kept seeing him on corners, and thought, 'what is he doing?' I just wanted an International Women's Day ride that felt safe and lovely for everyone," she said.

Pickett said she and others had complained about the man to various cycling clubs previously, to no avail. But on this occasion, and with a new, female president in charge, he was finally banned from his latest club.

"Prior to that several male presidents had been like, 'Oh, he's a good guy, he's always down at crits helping and supporting', so I always got shut down," Pickett said.

Some women, she added, were too embarrassed to complain if they had responded to his messages before realising his intent.

While grateful that action was finally taken, Pickett is alarmed by instances of men abusing the tracking features of exercise apps to stalk women.

Apps make it 'easy' to determine someone's location

Pickett has a long list of men she blocked after they attempted to harass or stalk her online.

"Some men will ask questions like 'So what apartment block are you living in? What's your route tomorrow? What racing are you doing next? So [basically], 'how do I determine where I can stalk you?'" she said.

Pickett argued that some exercise apps make it "easy" to determine someone's location.

"It happens to women all the time".

Karen Bevan, CEO of Full Stop Australia, an organisation which supports people affected by sexual, domestic or family violence, said cyber stalking was an issue developers must take responsibility for.

"Too often, staying safe on these apps depends on people finding and changing settings they may not know exist," she said.

"This puts the burden in the wrong place — the harm comes from design choices and companies are the ones who should fix them.

"Platforms need to act first; most privacy settings should be switched on at sign-up, activity start and end points hidden automatically, messages from strangers off unless a user opts-in, and [there should be] quick, meaningful responses to complaints."

In a statement, a Strava spokesperson said the platform takes the safety and privacy of its global community very seriously.

"Our fully adjustable suite of privacy controls enables people to choose what they share and with whom. Key protections are on by default, including Messaging set to 'Friends Only', and the first and last 200 metres of activity maps are automatically hidden.

"We do not tolerate harassment, similar conduct or any other violation of our Community Standards. Our Trust and Safety team proactively monitors for violations, and carefully reviews any reports made by our community, taking appropriate action as needed."

Women want to run without being tracked

Melburnian Melanie Caple, 38, said the issue was not limited to cycling, either.

Caple is an app developer, mural artist and long-time runner who revels in the freedom of hitting the track alone.

"Running is the one thing that has meant I kind of feel OK in and about the world," she said.

Growing up in country Victoria, she moved to London at the age of 20, and said she regularly ran solo without thinking about letting anyone know where she was.

As she has got older, however — and with incidents like Samantha Murphy's alleged murder on a morning run — she has felt more pressure to let her family know where she is, and that she is safe.

With a wry sense of humour, she and her sister often exchange texts before runs with the hashtag #dontgetmurdered, followed by kisses.

Caple, however, drew the line at sharing her location while running.

Like Pickett, she has heard stories of women being cyber stalked.

Caple was also previously in an abusive relationship and said using GPS tracking mimicked being stalked.

"You want your family to feel assured that you're taking responsibility for your safety, but I didn't want to feel like I had to justify my freedom and independence in the world," she said.

Caple does, however, appreciate what draws most users to exercise apps: the chance to track her progress over time, and feel pride in her achievements, such as increasing the length of her runs, or completing them in shorter times.

As a result, Caple designed her own app — called SoloRunClubxx — which allows users to track their workouts without notifying anyone of their whereabouts.

However, the app also includes a safety feature which allows the user to set an estimated end time for their run and asks them at that point in time if they have finished their run safely.

They can either respond saying they have finished, or are still running. It is only if they do not respond that a loved one is notified with their location.

Tech companies must 'keep pace with the law'

Caple has been buoyed by community feedback to the app, citing one example where a pregnant woman fell on her route, and was taken by ambulance to hospital. Her sister was notified of her location in the emergency department after she failed to report that she was safe.

Caple said the app was designed for extraordinary instances like these, so that women and gender diverse people can otherwise feel free of surveillance.

"I wanted to work out a way that, if something was going to happen to me on a run, in that worst case scenario, someone would know without me having to sacrifice my privacy and freedom," she said.

Bevan, from Full Stop Australia, also runs regularly, and said "everyone deserves freedom" while exercising.

"Gender-based violence is about misusing power, and restricting someone's freedom to move is part of that."

She said the law recognises tracking as stalking, and the onus is on technology companies to "keep pace with the law".

"Location technology should be designed so it can't easily be turned into a tool of surveillance and control," Bevan said.

*Amy is a pseudonym used to protect her identity.