Privacy policy

MY COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY

I’m committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. I’ll ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when you complete my contact form. This is so I know your name and can email you back. I ask for your phone number too, the reason for this is so that I can text you to let you know the email from me is likely hiding in the junk or spam mail folder. I promise (cross my heart), not to sell it to dark web hackers for filthy lucre if you eventually decide not to book me.

WHAT I COLLECT (The INFORMATION I HOLD)

I may collect and process the information you provide by completing forms on my website and information you supply in email correspondence.

I may collect the following information:

  • Name

  • Email address

  • Mobile number

  • Your home address (This is for the contract)

  • The address where you’re getting ready on the morning of the wedding.

  • Whether you’re having flying saucers on your sweet cart or not.

  • Names of key family members (I use this for group photos)

  • Whether your dog will be attending and details of his / her outfit

  • Details of your other suppliers

  • A delivery address for your finished photos

WHAT I DO WITH THIS INFORMATION

It sits quietly in my email inbox and on a slick, cloud-based management software tool called 17hats.

A nice and thoroughly respectable chap called Donovan Janus founded 17hats. It’s an American company, so the data that I collect from you may be transferred to and stored at a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. I will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

I also print out this data and pop it in an A4 ring binder which lives on a shelf in my office, just so that in the unlikely event that the internet breaks, I still know who you are, when your wedding is and the venue etc. When I go on holiday, I move the folder from the shelf to a locked cabinet. My house is protected by insurance compliant door and window locks.

17hats also has an app, so your information is accessible from my iPhone. I have touch ID enabled and the app also requires a password.

If you complete my contact form in a bid to try and sell me something, rest assured it goes straight into trash. No, really… straight in the bin.

PRIVACY & INDIVIDUALS RIGHTS

The GDPR includes the following rights for individuals:

  • The right to be informed

  • The right of access (You’re welcome to pop in for a coffee & look during office hours, but give me a call first so I’m up, out of my jim-jams and have run the hoover round)

  • A right to rectification

  • The right to erasure (If you ask me to delete every copy of your wedding photos, I will need to receive this request from both parties plus there’s a cooling-off period of 3 months)

  • Right to restrict processing

  • The right to data portability

  • A right to object

  • The right not to be subject to automated decision-making including profiling. (I’m not even sure what automated decision-making is, let alone subject you to its devilish ways).

RIGHT TO ERASURE

With GDPR, everyone has the Right to Erasure. For more on Erasure click here

LAWFUL PROCESSING OF DATA

I only process data in relation to inquiries and booking conversations with clients. The processes and systems I have in place are designed with your privacy in mind.

ACCESS REQUESTS

If you would like to access the data I have on you, you can request this in writing via email, or visit me at a pre-agreed time. I won’t charge you for it, even though I print everything out for you and will offer copious amounts of coffee and local treats.

CONSENT

Here’s the lowdown on what ‘consent’ means with GDPR:

GDPR definition: “any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her”

When you book me to photograph your wedding, you’ll be asked to review and accept my Terms & Conditions. These set out what you can expect from me and the basis on which you’re booking my services. In these is a section on consent how your photos are used by me after the wedding date. By agreeing to the T&C’s you are consenting to images created at your wedding/event being used in my marketing and promotions. I will not sell or use them for any other purpose without your prior agreement. You have the right to remove consent at any time - please email me if this is the case.

CONSENT & GUEST PHOTOS

Throughout the wedding day, I will aim to take photos of as many of your guests as possible. During the main family and friends photos, I will work on the assumption that everyone is happy for me to photograph them. I verbally seek the permission of the parents/guardians of any children I’m photographing on the wedding day about photo use

When it comes to other guests e.g. evening reception guests, I work on the basis of ‘assumed consent’ for documentary coverage. I will verbally ask for consent from the people I intend to photograph in any organised or posed photograph. If they decline, I will take steps to omit them from the backgrounds of other photos where possible. As a result, you may notice one or two people missing from the final photo selection. If they say yes, I will take this as ‘express consent’. Even if the guest in question just downed a load of shots and is blatantly plastered. With GDPR, consent can be withdrawn later without reason. So, if a guest recovers from a hangover and remembers they pulled a sickie at work to attend your wedding day, they can rest assured I will not post a photo on Instagram of them throwing shapes on the dancefloor with their tie around their head. They just need to get in touch and let me know. A text is fine.

PHOTO REMOVAL

You and your guests have the right NOT to be featured on my website or in my promotional materials. I will work on the assumption that your guests are ok with me featuring photos that make them look fabulous. If however, I photograph part of your wedding day that involves, say, tipsy guests having a ‘how many people can we fit under this table’ competition before one of them passes out on the dancefloor (yes, this really happened), then I would like to reassure you that I will not post this online or use it for marketing purposes.

If any of your guests contact me and request that their photo is removed, I will remove the whole photo as adding a blur effect or putting a black box over their face may deter from the overall aesthetic I’m aiming for.

PROMOTIONAL EMAILS & MAILING LISTS

Observant existing clients may have noticed they’ve not received any emails requesting permission to keep emailing them. This is because I don’t have a fancy email list.

I will only email you in relation to an inquiry, or a question you have asked me. Or to beg you to hurry up and choose album pictures already. Or for a host of other important reasons directly relating to your inquiry or wedding booking.

In the unlikely event that in the future I’m ever organised enough to send out regular promotional emails, this would, obviously, require me setting up a mailing list. In this case, I’ll ask permission in advance and comply with all the double opt-in stuff. However, it should be noted I’m still catching up with blogging weddings from four years ago, so at present, this seems unlikely.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

If you decide to stop looking at the collection of photos that I have painstakingly curated for your viewing pleasure and head off to another site via a link, I cannot be held responsible for either any disappointment in how the photography over there compares, or that website breaking your computer. I do periodically check that links work properly, but I don’t check them for malware.

SECURITY

Precautions are taken on my website to ensure it is as secure as possible. This reduces the chance of data being robbed via hacking or malware.

I delete old emails and mobile numbers when everything has been delivered and we’ve not been in touch for 12 months or longer. If you do text me out of the blue, please keep this in mind. Remember to mention who you are along with your wedding date.

GDPR COMPLIANCE

I will make every effort to keep up to date with changes in legislation, and remain GDPR compliant.

Over on the Information Commissioner’s Office website, they explain that the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are currently a work in progress and therefore subject to change, so I commit to doing my best to keep up.