Privacy Policy
If you’ve managed to navigate to this page, then you must really care a lot about your data privacy and the oh so lovely GDPR regulations. GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and it is a European Union law which fundamentally reshaped how personal data is collected and processed by companies and/or individuals. It’s a bit of a nightmare to understand in its legal format, so I’m going to break mine down here as if I was having a conversation with you. I will try to lay out how I manage and use the data that I collect. It’s a legal requirement to have this visible on a website now too….so here it is, yay 🙂
Personal Data That I May Collect
When you enquire or book a photoshoot with me, I collect your name and those names that are directly associated with the photoshoot that you book with me. I may also collect your email address so that I can communicate with you, and possibly your house address in case I wanted or needed to post something to you. I collect your mobile and/or other contact telephone number so that I can talk to you about your photoshoot when you’re not in the same room as me and I need to know something related to that shoot. And I obviously collect a visual likeness of yourselves via the medium of photography, because that’s what you’ve paid me for after all. All of this is necessary for me to do my job.
How I collect and keep your personal data
Well, it’s not rocket science. I generally ask for it when we are talking to each another, or you may even introduce yourself on the phone so that I know who I’m talking to. You may give data to me in one of my online forms such as a photoshoot enquiry form. Or I may even see it online on social media if you have contacted me via that medium. It means I know who I’m talking to and that I don’t need to call you Client A or Client A1.2. Is it all pretty obvious so far isn’t it.
The online forms that you fill in, arrive in my email inbox, which is fully secure and password protected. A draft is also automatically sent to an externally hosted and password protected third party studio management software to manage and administer your account with me. This software is fully GDPR compliant.
Your photoshoot data is stored in my photoshoot library catalogue. It will obviously have your name attached to the file so that I can find your photos should you contact me in twelve months time asking for x, y or z.
Blog commenting and social media
I have a blog on my website which is obviously available publicly available. At present, I have the commenting feature turned off on this as I couldn’t be bothered filtering through all of the spam and automated bot adverts that float around these things. Should I decide someday in a moment of wisdom to enable the commenting feature, then all comments are obviously visible online, so do not ever disclose any personal information on this, ever.
The same common sense applies to social media comments. These are somewhat more controllable by your own privacy settings on that particular platform, but please always assume that others can see what you comment with, so keep it family friendly please and avoid posting anything that you wouldn’t want anyone else knowing.
Your right of confirmation, access, rectification and erasure
If you have any questions about how your personal data is handled, you can drop me an email or letter using the contact information at the bottom of this page. If some of the information is wrong, you have the right to correct it, and I would highly recommend keeping it accurate as it would certainly help for on location photoshoots such as weddings. If you would like me to delete all of your personal data then you have the right to request that too, but I wouldn’t recommend that ahead of any shoots you have with me for obvious reasons. I definitely need to know certain things about you in order to work for you. Incidentally, the actual photographs that I take and process – these are technically called my ‘intellectual property’, so this is something that you can not ask me to delete, but you may, under certain circumstances request that I do not publicise them.
The use of your data
If I need to contact you in relation to your photoshoot, then I’ll use one of the contact methods I have for you. You may also receive emails to say that, for example, your online gallery is expiring – or information about your gallery. Or even your orders for instance – it’s all fairly obvious again isn’t it. I will not give your email address out to anyone else though – not without your explicit consent at least. I would have no reason to share this information anyway. The only thing I may share is a contact telephone number, but only if it was directly related to our photoshoot – for instance, if I was hiring a second shooter for your wedding, I may give him the grooms number if he was covering the groom preparations, so that he can contact him if he got lost for instance (and obviously he would have whatever address he needed to find in order to do the job he was hired to do).
Any data that is collected, is either stored on my computer and / or mobile phone in the office management software mentioned above. Photographs are obviously stored on memory cards initially, then transferred to the computer and later backed up to a secure online back up storage service.
The use of your face based data
Yes, apparently pictures that include your face, is now called data too.
So there are a couple of things that I do in order to help me run my business. People do actually need to see my work, in order to know what I do, and help them decide that I am the right photographer for them. This requires me to have samples of my work in my studio. It requires me to post pictures on my website and my blog. It requires me to post pictures online such as on various social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Sometimes I may feature in, or place an advert in some media publications. If you have booked me, then you have more than likely seen my work in some of these places. Sometimes I also submit photos to industry competitions and/or to gain photographic qualifications too.
You will now have the option to either, opt in or opt out, of certain data usage. Only images that opt in, will be considered for any exposure usage. You can have the option if necessary, of selecting only certain images that I may use or not use.
If you require total privacy though, then this is not a problem. I have shot events where the only people that have seen the photos are the clients that had hired me. So if you are an extremely private individual or family, then fear not – you are in good hands.
In circumstances where the client has gathered a large group of people and hired me to photograph that event, such as a wedding for instance, it is assumed that the client knows it is their responsibility to ask for their guests’ permission. But generally it is widely assumed that it is common knowledge that a wedding is obviously going to be documents via video or photo coverage.
Order fulfilment
I use very carefully selected specialist suppliers to fulfil my orders. Obviously, for me to fulfil these orders, whichever data they require is sent to them. The biggest part of that data is the image itself. Your name, or other identifying identification of the shoot is most likely going to be included in the file name. This is for speed and ease of working, and also so that I send the correct files to be printed. No other information is shared other than what is required for them to do their job.
Use of cookies
Even though you may be offered a cookie or something similar along with a cup of tea during one of my studio consultations, this is a referring to a different type and non edible type of cookie. You’ve probably heard of these. These are little bits of automatically generated computer coding that is stored on someones computer or device when they visit a website. All websites do it apparently, so my website is no different. It will not store or collect any personal or sensitive information whatsoever. Apparently their purpose is to ultimately allow a better experience to be delivered to you as a someone that has appeared interested in and visited my website. You can view and control your own devices cookie information within the internet or privacy settings on your device.
Updates
My privacy policy may be updated from time to time. The most current version will always be published on this page on my website. This policy was updated on 21 June 2020.