Safety is something women everywhere have to think about when going places alone, even while doing something as simple as going for a run.

“It’s really frustrating to think that you have to think about ‘Where are you going?’ ‘Are you going alone?’ ‘What time are you going?’ ‘Do you have to be in the defensive all the time?’ ” says Freihofers Run for Women Director Kristen Hislop. “We’ve placed this on women, that women are the issue that we have to think about these things. No. Again, it’s our society that really needs to be thinking about this and saying ‘What can we all do to make this better?’ ”

This week in the Capital Region, a man’s Instagram page featuring women running, filmed seemingly without their consent, made the rounds on social media. It is now a cause of concern for many.

“So, I did go in and look at the pictures and I recognized some faces and it's sad, it’s scary, it’s disheartening,” Hislop said.

Saratoga Springs police have said there is no current threat to the public. A report has been filed and the investigation is ongoing, but Hislop says runners should still take precautions if they feel unsafe. You can run in groups, wear bone conduction headphones that don’t go into your ears, vary routes and use GPS tracking to your advantage.

“There’s a lot of tracking that you can do too, so you know, a lot of the watches have things in them; let people know where you’re going, let them know your route and, on the flip side, be careful of all the social media of letting everyone know where you’re running and where you run," Hislop said.

There are also defensive tools like pepper spray or concealed blades in jewelry. But Hislop explains the bigger issue is the fact that the conversation needs to be had at all.

“You know, it’s very sad that we even have to think about doing that because these are people who are outside exercising trying to be healthy. You know, call somebody out, you [record] them. We have to call these people out because if they’re taping you, they’re doing it to somebody else, too," Hislop said.