Acceptable Use Policy
Effective Date: 30 September 2024
Strava's Terms of Service establish restrictions on content and conduct on Strava as outlined in this Acceptable Use Policy. In short, you may not use the Services, or assist or encourage any other party, to engage in any of the restricted Content or Conduct described below. We also expect you to honor the Strava Community Standards.
Content restrictions
Prohibited content includes publishing, transmitting, distributing, or storing content, material, information or data that:
- is illegal or promotes illegal activities, including in relation to
- sexual exploitation or abuse, including of minors
- terrorist or radical extremist content
- export control or sanctions laws
- is threatening or harassing
- is hateful or discriminatory
- is violent, graphic, or advocates violence
- is sexually obscene
- may be harmful to minors
- promotes or encourages self-harm, eating disorders, or suicide
- violates Strava’s misuse policy (under EU law)
- is fraudulent or contains false, deceptive or misleading statements, claims or representations, including
- misinformation or disinformation
- impersonation such as of a person, company, or brand
- is inauthentic, including
- manipulating data used for leaderboards
- posting activities that do not reflect authentic activities completed by you
- directing people outside of the platform to participate in financial schemes, sexual exploitation, or to otherwise encourage inauthentic interactions
- violates any privacy, publicity or other personal rights, including
- defamation
- doxxing
- posting media that you do not have permission to share
- sharing other people’s personal information without their consent
- infringes, dilutes, misappropriates or otherwise violates any intellectual property, including copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets or other proprietary information—including unauthorized use of domain names
- is harmful to or interferes with the Services or any third party’s networks, equipment, applications, services or websites (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, etc.)
- is intended to or likely to deceive, mislead or defraud others through phishing or social engineering techniques.
Conduct restrictions
Prohibited conduct includes:
- using any automated system, including “robots,” “spiders,” “offline readers,” to access the Services in a manner that sends more requests to Strava than a human can reasonably produce in the same period of time by using a conventional web browser
- creating accounts in bulk
- using extensions or other means to bypass limits on automated interactions such as kudos or comments
- taking any action that imposes, or may impose, at our sole discretion, an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure
- attempting to disrupt, degrade, impair or violate the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the Services or the computers, services, accounts or networks of any other party including denial of service attacks, or any activity that typically precedes attempts to breach security such as scanning, probing or other testing or vulnerability assessment activity, or engaging in or permitting any network or hosting activity that results in a deny list or other blockage of Strava internet protocol space
- posting, commenting, or otherwise creating content in an unsolicited or repetitive manner to get attention, gain more followers, advertise, or promote a business
- significantly or repeatedly disrupting the experience of other users, such as
- posting content that is unrelated to the purpose of a club in that club
- repeatedly requesting followers, kudos, club joins, or engagement to rapidly amplify the reach of your content
- posting the same pieces of content in multiple places
- posting objectionable content in public surfaces, such as segments or routes, on Strava
- coordinating a social media campaign on Strava or other platforms to request a new product feature or product change outside of the Community Hub, or to attempt to get Strava to revisit a decision
- evading an enforcement action, for example by creating a new account after being suspended.
Reporting content
Learn how to report content on Strava that you believe violates the law or Strava’s policies.
You can report content you believe violates the law or Strava’s Community Standards, this Acceptable Use Policy or any other part of Strava’s Terms of Service:
- In the product, on our website, and Strava mobile applications, users can click the report option next to the content or user account. From there, users will be able to access a reporting flow to provide reviewers with more context about the nature of their report.
- Through our Help Center, users can find information on how to contact us directly to submit a report for review. This support article provides instructions on how to report by content type or using our contact form: https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/6738598338061-Reporting-Content-on-Strava-for-Violations-of-Our-Community-Standards.
- If you are an official representative of an EU Member State, Commission, or Board, or an EU user intending to report content you believe is illegal, please refer to this page: https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/14660137740301-Strava-and-the-European-Union-s-Digital-Services-Act.
Content Review and Enforcement
Learn how we approach content review and enforcement.
We take user reports seriously and take appropriate actions based on our policies, taking context into account where relevant, and the results of our investigation.
- Context includes potential exposure to other users, for example, where content is posted in public surfaces on Strava, like large clubs or segments. For example, in enforcing the restrictions above, we take into account that segment names show up on other athletes’ activities, and expect athletes to be respectful of the community and others when naming segments.
- We may proactively review content to determine whether it violates our policies. In some cases, we may use automated detection to surface content for human review, or in limited cases, to block content. In all cases, a human reviews any appeals.
- If we determine that content violates our Terms of Service, including this Acceptable Use Policy, or our Community Standards, we may take action such as to remove content, to revoke or limit access to features, and/or to suspend or block account access. This support article provides more information regarding account enforcement: https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/6800107652365-Understanding-Account-Enforcement.
Appeals
Learn how we handle appeals against our content review and enforcement decisions.
When we remove content, suspend an account, restrict access to features, or take any other action against a user’s content or account, or when we do not have sufficient information to take action on a user report, we notify the account owner using the email address on file. These notices offer the opportunity for users to appeal these decisions by getting in touch with human reviewers who can read and evaluate their appeals.
- If the user wishes to appeal an enforcement decision against their content or account or a decision not to act on their report, they can contact us via https://support.strava.com or by replying directly to the email notification of the decision, for up to six months after the date of the decision, to provide information explaining why they believe the decision was taken in error.
- When submitting an appeal, users should tell us the reason they are appealing the decision, including any context or background information that could help us understand their case. They may submit screenshots or any additional content they believe will be helpful to our reviewers to consider.
- Once an appeal is received, a human will review the original decision against our policies and guidelines to determine whether the determination of a violation and/or the enforcement action taken were warranted. Such decisions typically include granting the appeal, requesting more information, or denying the appeal.
- We will communicate our decision by responding to the email we received from the appealing user. For more information about our appeals process, you can read our help article here: https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/6800107652365-Understanding-Account-Enforcement.
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