If you have purchased a portable Garmin device with a built-in GPS, you might want to take a moment and change one of its critical settings, if you value your privacy. To get an idea of what is possible, go to

http://connect.garmin.com/explore

This is the map-based activity finder for several Garmin sports equipment users. To take a closer look, enter your zip code at the top and that should bring up a map with different people’s activity over the past few days. Red for bikers, blue for runners, etc. You can scan history, and in my own explorations I found several organized bike rides along with a woman named Hannah’s running schedule, and more. It is very scary. Why?

Because with a tiny amount of digging you can go online, find out if there is anyone in your area who runs or bikes, when they go, where they go, where they live, and even what expensive training equipment they’re wearing. All of this information is made available because the default security setting is “public.”

I asked Garmin’s PR about this and they stated that they have informed their customers about this. But why not just make the default setting private?

Those of you that use these devices should take a moment now and set them to private if you don’t want this information available to just anyone.