Peloton, Strava and TrainerRoad collect and share the most personal data, finds new cycling app study

Peloton, Strava and TrainerRoad have been found to be the most 'personal data-hungry' cycling apps, according a recent study by Supplement Timing.

Supplement Timing looked at over 100 of the most popular fitness and health apps available on the app store, releasing its findings to rank them according to which share the most and least of your personal data.

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“Which data could possibly be more personal than your health and fitness stats?”, asks Supplement Timing. Well, if this is a concern for you, the full breakdown of the data being tracked, both by default and as a optional setting, can be seen in the table below.

The team read the user agreements and privacy policies of each app to discover which ones are collecting and sharing the most personal data with third parties.

The Peloton fitness app, with live classes as well as a back catalogue of previous classes, was found to track the most personal data, with Strava coming a close second.

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Fulgaz, an Australian app that uses real-world videos of cyclists, was found to store the least amount of data of the apps analysed, with Bkool Simulator and Wahoo Fitness not too far behind.

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“Supplement Timing believes that whether it's your fitness regimen, the food you eat, or the supplements you take - everybody can push themselves to harder, better, faster and stronger.

“But in today’s technologically-driven world, many of the apps we use to keep track of our nutrition and our workouts come with a cost - our personal data.

“Supplement Timing wanted to bring this to light to help you achieve your fitness goals while retaining your privacy.”

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Nutrition and weight loss apps were also found to be the ones most likely to track personal data by default without alerting you, while FitBit is the step counter app that collects and shares your data the most.

At the other end, yoga, mental health and sleep tracking apps are the least hungry for your personal data.

Methodology

For each app, Supplement Timing says it analysed the official privacy policy as provided on their website or on the website of the parent organisation:

“Where possible, a distinction was made between the information users have to provide to use the app and its features, and the information users can choose to share with the app", it said. 

For each of the 27 types of personal data identified, Supplement Timing says it give an app 2 points if a certain type of data was tracked by default, and 1 point if that type of data was tracked only if users gave permission for it to be tracked.

Supplement Timing's full study can be found here and all of the data is over here.

Could this information change which fitness apps you use, and the way you use them? Let us know in the comments as always.