Howdy! If you’ve clicked here it must mean you care a lot about your data privacy and the recent GDPR implementation or you’ve accidentally landed here but either way, let me explain what GDPR is. GDPR stands for Great Defence from Paranoid Robotics (jokes, it stands for General Data Protection Regulation) and was designed to create mass hysteria and panic amongst all those small businesses who happen to work with people’s faces. Not like a plastic surgeon. Are faces personal data? This has yet to be confirmed by the EU. Man, they are awesome at their job! Anyways, in the meantime, what we do need to do is be compliant in handling written info you give us like what happened on the hen do and which family member secretly boils your piss. So here is Chris Copeland Photography’s updated GDPR compliant privacy policy:
Personal data I collect
I collect your name so I don’t have to be all formal and call you Sir/Madam, your email address so I can communicate with you, your mobile number so I can call/text you to find you on the wedding day, your address so I can post your sweet ass wedding parcel to you and take your photographs because that’s what you’ve paid me to do. All of this is necessary for me to do my job.
How I collect and keep your personal data
I suck out souls through the web cam, but that’s quite an effort l so I’d rather you used my contact form on my website, which arrives in a email inbox that is tightly password protected with something that doesn’t contain my birthday date. If you go ahead with booking me as your wedding photographer, I will store your email in the same email address (Google mail, a fully GDPR compliant company), which is only accessed through two computers, neither of which contain my birthday in the password. If you enquire but don’t book me (pffft as if that’ll happen!), I will delete all your personal data from my client database after you have broken my heart and went elsewhere.
Blog commenting
I have a blog on my website where I showcase, when time allows, some of the amazing stories I’m asked to play a part in. If you comment on it, it’s super public so everyone can see it, so don’t write down your personal credit card details there or home address here, you can just send that directly to me ;)
Right of confirmation, access, rectification and erasure
In all seriousness, if you have questions about how your personal data is handled, you can just drop me an email and I will quickly write something up. I’m happy to show you the information I have on you, and unsurprisingly it’ll probably be exactly the things you’ve told me because sadly I am neither a spy nor a mind reader. If some of the information is wrong, you have the right to correct it, and I would definitely recommend this because neither of us want me turning up at the wrong wedding! If you’d like me to delete all your personal data, you have the right to request it, but I wouldn’t recommend asking for that before your wedding otherwise my journey to your wedding will become a saga akin to The Matrix films. I definitely need to know stuff about you to work with you. When you’re done with me you can totally dump and delete. I do tend to keep email addresses of our couples in the database for the duration that I provide your online galleries- if you’d like to fully close your account with me in a manner of speaking, just let me know and I can totally wipe you.
Use of your data
The summary of this is that I’m not a weird dick. I will 100% definitely use your email to email you about your wedding. If there’s something related to your wedding like a discount coupon for prints or albums, I’ll possibly email you that too if I like you. If there’s something unrelated to your wedding but related to something we had a human conversation about like a really cool new bar or restaurant you guys need to check out next time you’re in Berlin or whatever, I may well email you about that too. I never give your email or other personal data out to anyone else, not even other vendors or suppliers who may have worked at your wedding. I also won’t be sending you lots of newsletters mostly because frankly, that ain’t my bag and I don’t even have one. Yeyy for real life!
I have a booking form that asks you for details about your wedding day, that doesn’t go anywhere bar my computer. After your wedding I might send you a questionnaire for a featured blog post, you aren’t obliged to fill it out and what you write in there may be edited into content for your blog feature, so again, please don’t leave treasure maps to pots of gold in there. Any and all information I request from you is entirely voluntary.
Sometimes your wedding looks really jazzy to an independent wedding blogger, and they may ask my permission to court thee. Again, nothing can happen without your consent so I wouldn’t stress about that. Sometimes I submit photos to competitions but I tend to only use photos you’ve already given permission for on my own website.
Use of your face-based data
When it comes to your photographs, the EU hasn’t gotten too specific about what that means for working photographers bar that we need to demonstrate reasonable and legitimate use. I can tell you that I won’t sell your wedding photos to be used in some weird sketchy advertisement in the Far East and if a third party does approach me asking me to buy/use one of your photos, I will email you about it directly. Sometimes you may want to sell it. I’ve had couples before receive comped accommodation and the spa treatments and in some cases a few quid, in exchange with a venue using an image or two. Not too shabby! But in short it’ll never be without your consent or knowledge.
There are a couple of things I do to run my business, like show my work on the life destroyer that is social media. Mainly instagram, Facebook and my own website. If you have booked me you probably looked at photos of my real couples on these various unscrupulous avenues. I do ask couples to opt into this in my contract, but you can always decide to keep your wedding private. I have shot a lot of weddings that no one has seen, at the end of the day I’m not a weirdo and I respect that some people don’t want to be on the internet. Even if you don’t specify that you want out, I will actually ask you directly after the wedding as well if you’re ok with me putting you and your guests on my website. It is your responsibility to ask your guests’ permission, although we both know Uncle Bob and *that* bridesmaid aren’t shy.
I store photos of your lovely lovely faces on password encrypted hard drives in my house that is behind a double locked door. It’s a really good quality lock that I personally chose for its level of security. I also keep a copy of your faces with an online gallery provider that is GDPR compliant.
GDPR compliancy (is that a word? It sounds weird) achieved!
The new EU regulations require me to just do stuff that’s fairly within the realms of my job role, I guess all you really need to know is that I’m a nice human being who wants to be able to do my job but who won’t take the piss.
