Insights from WebPurify’s fireside chat with Strava at the Marketplace Risk Global Summit, London, November 2026

Many digital platforms are not designed as communities from the outset. They begin as products with a functional purpose, and communities form around them as users start to interact. That transition has significant implications for trust and safety: it changes a platform’s risk profile, the harms it must anticipate and the responsibilities it holds toward its users.

This was the focus of a fireside chat at the 2026 Marketplace Risk Global Summit in London, moderated by Ailís Daly, Head of Trust & Safety at WebPurify, with Natasha Ahmed Walsh, Public Policy Lead for the UK and EMEA at Strava.

Strava offers an instructive case study. Activity on the platform is directly linked to users’ physical movements and real-world locations, so online interaction and offline safety are closely connected. The discussion surfaced several principles relevant to any platform that enables users to connect, particularly where those connections may extend into the physical world.

How community changes the risk profile

Users typically join Strava to record an activity. According to Natasha, they remain because of the community: the interactions, clubs and group activities that form around shared goals. On Strava, community is defined by motivation and belonging rather than reach. In Natasha’s words, “It means feeling seen for showing up, whatever your pace or level.”

This shift has direct consequences for trust and safety. Once users interact with one another, the experience is shaped by community behavior as well as product design. Trust and safety teams must therefore consider how users connect, not only what the product enables.

Strava’s approach is built on user control. Tailored settings allow users to determine who can see their activities, what appears on their maps, and who can follow and interact with them. Clear community standards complement these controls by establishing expectations for respectful, supportive behavior.

Balancing visibility and privacy

Visibility is integral to Strava’s value. Sharing activity encourages accountability and mutual support. However, activity data can also reveal users’ routines and locations, creating an inherent tension between visibility and privacy.

Natasha explained that because Strava is built around real-world activity, safety and privacy are central considerations in its design process. The company sees its role as equipping users with the tools to make informed choices, including the ability to hide the start and end points of an activity on their maps. “The aim is for everyone to share in a way that feels right for them,” she said.

Managing the transition from online to offline

Risk increases when digital connections have the potential to become in-person encounters. Strava’s objective is for users to feel confident when they are active, whether alone or with others.

Its Beacon feature allows users to share their live location with selected contacts during an activity. Users can also manage who follows and interacts with them, and block or report other users where necessary.

For marketplaces, event platforms and other services that facilitate offline meetings, the implication is clear: risk assessment and safety planning must account for what happens beyond the platform itself.

Safety by design in practice

Natasha outlined several practical principles for embedding safety by design:

• Integrate safety at the concept stage. Safety considerations should inform a feature from its inception rather than being retrofitted after launch.
• Treat privacy and safety as measures of product quality. Natasha also observed that regulation can support innovation by prompting teams to reconsider how products are designed.
• Make controls accessible and understandable. Controls only protect users if they can find and understand them. This requires plain language, settings presented at the moment of decision (for example, when uploading an activity) and short paths to privacy settings.
• Educate users at key moments. Timely prompts and guidance help users understand the implications of their choices.

Natasha also emphasized cross-functional collaboration. Working in public policy, she partners closely with Strava’s Trust & Safety team, as well as its legal, design, engineering and community teams, “because safety is a shared responsibility.”

The case for external collaboration

Asked for the single lesson she would leave with marketplace, risk and trust and safety leaders, Natasha pointed to collaboration beyond the organization: engaging with academia and other experts, because no single company has all the answers.

Communities, and the ways in which people connect, continue to evolve. Researchers, specialist organizations and peer platforms contribute evidence and perspectives that individual companies cannot develop alone. Engaging this expertise early helps platforms design tools and settings that reflect how people actually behave. It also strengthens trust, as users, partners and policymakers can see that a platform’s approach is grounded in evidence and informed by multiple perspectives.

“The more we share what we learn across industry, academia and civil society, the better we can all make communities positive and sustainable,” she said.

Key takeaways for Trust & Safety teams

• Recognize when a product is becoming a community, and revisit risk assessments as users begin interacting with one another.
• Identify every point at which online activity may lead to a real-world encounter, and provide users with tools to stay safe offline.
• Offer meaningful privacy controls that are clear, accessible and available at the moment of decision.
• Integrate safety at the concept stage, and treat it as a measure of product quality.
• Establish safety as a shared responsibility across policy, trust and safety, legal, design, engineering and community teams.
• Draw on the expertise of academia, specialist organizations and industry peers.

How WebPurify can help

As products evolve into communities, their trust and safety requirements evolve with them. WebPurify’s Trust & Safety consultancy supports platforms of every size, from early-stage startups to very large online platforms, with risk assessments, policy development and safety-by-design reviews, complemented by our AI and human content moderation services.

To discuss how your platform’s risk profile is changing, contact our team. For further conversations with the professionals keeping the internet safe, listen to Trust Issues by WebPurify, available wherever you get your podcasts.