Privacy & Social Media
Meridian has no formal membership of either Instagram or Strava; however there is a Strava ‘Club’ in the name of Meridian and an Instagram account with the name ‘meridiancycling’. These accounts have been created by club members and, to date, appear to be managed in a responsible manner to the benefit of the club.
It is members’ own decision should they wish to join or participate in these activities. Members should be aware that participation in any form of ‘social media’ can involve a loss of privacy.
Should any member become aware of unsuitable postings/activity on these sites they should advise the committee and WebMaster who, within their limited powers, will endeavour to investigate and take appropriate action. Club members should be cautious when making postings to all sections of the club’s web site, particularly those that that are not password protected.
In setting up accounts it is not necessary to disclose your full name; it is suggested you use an abbreviation or alias that would be known to friends and other club members – but not to strangers.
Strava
- Strava has a Privacy settings that makes all postings be private (which can be seen as self-defeating).
- The Enhanced Privacy setting restricts visibility to approved followers (which again is not often seen as necessary).
- Privacy Zones can be set, these protect from visibility predefined zones, these could be your home or work – a very useful feature to hide your precise home location.
- A ‘Private’ Club is a club where membership has to be approved; other ‘Clubs’ are open to allcomers.
- Information posted by Strava ‘Club’ Members is freely available to others; regardless of whether the individuals’ settings are Private or the ‘Club’ is set to Private or not.
- The Flyby feature discloses your ‘identity’ to others who use part of your route or even cross your path – privacy settings enable you to opt out of this feature.7. Information displayed on the Meridian site is no more than is publicly available to any other person who chooses to search the Strava.com site.
- New Instagram accounts are by default set to ‘Public’ whereby there pictures are visible to everyone. There is a ‘Private` setting that restricts access to Approved followers.
- Users are recommended to restrict what information is revealed in their ‘user Profile’
- By default postings are not added to your PhotoMap; this is the recommended setting.
- Unwanted Photos/Postings can be deleted (or the ‘#meridiancycling’ tag removed)
- Respect other people’s privacy by not publishing their name with personal data.
- Have a care when posting Instagram material to Facebook and Twitter, this can significantly compromise privacy.