Rafe Abrook Photography's Privacy Policy Statement

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Hello! If you’ve clicked here it must mean you care a lot about your data privacy and the recent GDPR implementation. If you’re here by accident and you don’t know what GDPR is, GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It’s highly likely that at this point I have lost your attention, and I don’t blame you. As a photographer this has caused us some confusion as in addition to collecting some personal data, I also work with people’s faces. Are faces personal data? This has yet to be confirmed. In the meantime, what we do need to do is be compliant in handling written info you give us like ‘your favourite breakfast cereal’, and ‘tickle zones'. So here is Rafe Abrook Photography’s updated ‘easy reading and eminently sensible’ GDPR compliant privacy policy:

 Personal data I collect

I collect your name so I don’t have to call you Sir/Madam, your email address so I can communicate with you, your mobile number so I can call you to find you on the wedding day, your address so I can post your USB Boxes and Albums to you. During the planning process I also collect the names of immediate family members and the bride and groom parties as this helps me know ‘who is who’ on the day, and I prefer a relaxed informal, friendly approach with my clients and their fave people. All of this is necessary for me to do my job.

How I collect and keep your personal data

It’s highly likely you’ll contact me via my contact form on my website, which arrives in a tightly passworded email inbox that doesn’t contain my birthday date. If you go ahead with booking me as your wedding photographer, I will store your details on a pin protected laptop connected to a secure Drobo hard drive. If you enquire but don’t book me (as if!), I will delete your enquiring email from my email account, after the appropriate mourning period has ended. None of this information is stored anywhere else in this case. Oh, and my website is https:// and not one of the loser http:// type sites so I think it’s more secure than Kim Jong Un’s nuclear bunker

Blog commenting

I have a blog on my website where I showcase gob smackingly good wedding photography. If you comment on it it’s super public so everyone can see it, so don’t write down your personal credit card details and dogs maiden name on there.

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 respond swiftly. 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 I’ll be having to work under a boatload of dangerous assumptions! I definitely need to know stuff about you to work for you. When you’re done with me you can totally dump and delete. I do tend to keep email addresses of my clients in my email folders for the duration that I provide your online galleries- if you’d like to fully close your account with me per se, just let me know and I can totally wipe you.

Use of your data

The summary of this is that I only use your information for the purposes it was intended, namely delivering you amazing wedding images in a professional manner. I will 100% definitely use your email to email you about your wedding. If there’s something related to your wedding like a discount on albums, I’ll possibly email you that too in the future. If there’s something unrelated to your wedding but related to something we had a human conversation about like a really cool tapas restaurant, I may well email you about that too. I wouldn’t give your email out to anyone else, I don’t even give it to the second shooter! I also won’t be sending you lots of newsletters mostly because I don’t have time for all that jazz. I do give out phone numbers and addresses of groom prep to second shooters, not because they’re cute, but because similar to the clause above, it’s best for all involved if they are able to find and contact you on your wedding day.

I have a questionnaire that asks you for details about your wedding day, that doesn’t go anywhere bar my computer and then my back pocket on the day of the wedding. I then destroy the paper copy securely when I get home after your wedding is over. After your wedding I might send you a questionnaire for a 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 really.

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 Hello Magazine. If a third party does approach me asking me to buy one of your photos, I will email you about it. Sometimes you may want to sell it and make a little cash, but in short it’ll never be without your consent or knowledge and it won’t happen often.

There’s a couple of things I do to run my business, like show my work on Facebook, Instagram and my own website. If you have booked me you probably looked at photos of my real couples on these mediums. I do ask couples to opt into this in my contract, but you can always decide to keep your wedding private and we can operate under a different contract. I have shot a few weddings that no one has seen, and I respect that some people don’t want to be on the Internet. Even if you don’t specify that you want out, you can always contact me at any point to request that certain images are kept off my website. Please understand that marketing your images has massive value to my business, however I will always work with you to reach a situation that works for all involved. You can veto any photos you deem unfit for public consumption, and it is your responsibility to ask your guests’ permission for images of them to be shared via the platforms discussed above.

I store photos of your lovely, lovely faces on password encrypted hard drives in my apartment that is 3 stories up and only accessible through secure gates and two locked doors. It’s a nice part of town and even the most erstwhile secret agent would struggle to gain access to it. I also keep a copy of your faces with an online gallery provider that is GDPR compliant.

GDPR compliancy achievement unlocked!

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 put your privacy in jeopardy. As I always say, talk to me with any concerns and I will do whatever I can to alleviate them. Now go, and be pretty for me!