Last month, Playboy model Dani Mathers got on Snapchat and posted a photograph body shaming someone she saw at the dressing room of her gym in Los Angeles. LA Fitness—the gym in question—not only banned Mathers from the gym chain for life but also reported her to the police.

You’re reading the Performance Menu, which means that you’re of above average intelligence, so you don’t need me or anyone else to tell you that s

napping pics of nude women in the locker room is completely inappropriate, whether you mean to share the images privately (as Mathers insisted she did) or with all of your social media followers. And you’re probably aware that this type of surreptitious photography is also illegal, since gym goers have a reasonable expectation of privacy when changing in a locker room.

But you don’t have to be a complete moron or a bully (not sure which is worse) to share information other people might prefer to keep under wraps. More often than not, it happens accidentally. Having the best of intentions doesn’t necessarily minimize the impact, even if you don’t hear about it. So I thought this would be a good time to discuss a few scenarios.

Photos and Videos

Gym owners take photos and videos of members all the time, but they’ve probably also explained that they do this and asked for permission…and make exceptions for people who don’t want their names or pictures posted (often for security reasons because they work in law enforcement, for example). Even if someone is aware of photography happening in the gym and cool with it, while probably nobody minds people posting videos of them hitting a PR, your relationship with a teammate would dictate whether your videos of their failed lift posted on Facebook or on your favorite forum is something they’d take as kindly to. As a rule, it’s probably best to ask permission before posting. Even if you’re just taking videos to test out Coach’s Eye and plan on deleting them right away, at least let people know you’re taping so they’re not caught by surprise.

Injuries

Some people are discreet about their injuries. This is particularly important in combat sports. It’s a small world and people switch teams from time to time, and nobody with an injury wants an opponent to capitalize on it because of someone’s big mouth. Even if that’s not the case, sometimes people would prefer to keep injuries to themselves, so it’s always best to use discretion whenever possible. This goes for illnesses and health history as well.

Performance

A Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym I trained at has a sign on the wall that says “what happens on the mat stays on the mat.” Part of that is because sharing what happens when you’re training really changes the atmosphere inside the gym, making people more cautious and less playful, less willing to take risks. Sometimes when you’re working a new type of guard, or trying to use the non-dominant one side of your body, your training partner is none the wiser. Bragging about getting a sweet submission on someone who’s bigger or stronger or a higher rank isn’t always telling the whole story. Even if it is, doing so usually creates unnecessary friction—and it can be hard enough to keep drama out of the gym as is.

And, of course, it’s not just BJJ gyms with this issue. Anyone coming back from a long layoff from the gym or who’s just getting started with their fitness journey might not want people to discuss their numbers on Facebook.

Addresses

One time someone asked me for a mailing address for one of my training partners, who happened to be his ex-wife. He said she was no longer talking to him but had some personal items of hers that he wanted to return. I never did give him her home address, and told him to send the stuff to the gym. This was a good thing, since she had (unbeknownst to me) kept her address from him for security reasons and ended up getting a restraining order against him—which wasn’t something I’d have suspected. The point is that even giving away information that seems like it’s for innocuous reasons can sometimes be harmful. Typically I’ll pass on these types of requests, or take down a phone number so a person can contact whoever’s trying to get ahold of them, if they so choose.

For coaches

There are a steps coaches can take to protect information, depending on circumstances: a privacy screen on your laptop can prevent shoulder surfing if you’re writing a program in public, a lock on a filing cabinet if you share a building with people you don’t know, etc. But the most important is discretion. Being careful not to discuss injuries or illnesses in a room that people are walking in and out of, for example, is something athletes pick up on and appreciate.

You may not be legally bound by HIPAA laws, but being professional and holding yourself to those same high standards helps build the trust of your clients.