Bad day for school class photographers

Michael L. · Aug 20, 2019

As a somewhat surprising consequence of the recently approved EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), school class photos may soon become a thing of the past: in our neighbouring Sweden the regulation is already being implemented:
http://www.tellerreport.com/news/20...hotography-for-malmö-students-.Hyk0TLL4H.html
The GDPR is claimed to be the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years.
One wonders if it needed to be this comprehensive.

Sirius Glass · Aug 20, 2019

I understand the EU concerns about privacy and I agree with almost all of them, but this is overreach.

AgX · Aug 20, 2019

I passed 13 classes at school and only once encounterd a school photographer. None at university. I do not know whether to my benefit or not...

AgX · Aug 20, 2019

When the EU data-protection regulation was set into german legislation, partially in contrast to already existing and still valid legislation, there was quite some upset. It was said that time will tell how this strange situation will evolve. Since then there was silence...

BAC1967 · Aug 20, 2019

It's been quite a while since I was in school but I remember my parents paying for the photos. I would take home a form for them to select how many wallet size and other sizes they wanted then sent me back to school with the completed form and a check for the cost. The photographer was allowed by the school to do his business there, he must have had an exclusive agreement with them. I don't think the school paid for the photographer at all, they just provided the photographer a place to take the photos. The same photo was used in the annual year book when we were in Junior High and High School. Students or parents had to pay for the year book as well but I think that was just to cover the printing costs. The production of the year book was mostly done by students supervised by a teacher. I recently had a conversation with a local school teacher about that, the teacher actually gets a very small salary bonus for supervising the yearbook club, about $1,000 for the year. She said it's not worth it.

Are these photos in Europe similar to what I described or is there some other reason for them?

mgb74 · Aug 20, 2019

Now, I suspect virtually all school photos are digital. And there has been consolidation of school photography companies (at least in the US). So there is a greater threat of their systems being hacked and literally millions of photo (probably with names) stolen. Is that a real threat to the students? I can't see how but I suppose it raises a privacy concern.

Sirius Glass · Aug 20, 2019

BAC1967 said:
It's been quite a while since I was in school but I remember my parents paying for the photos. I would take home a form for them to select how many wallet size and other sizes they wanted then sent me back to school with the completed form and a check for the cost. The photographer was allowed by the school to do his business there, he must have had an exclusive agreement with them. I don't think the school paid for the photographer at all, they just provided the photographer a place to take the photos. The same photo was used in the annual year book when we were in Junior High and High School. Students or parents had to pay for the year book as well but I think that was just to cover the printing costs. The production of the year book was mostly done by students supervised by a teacher. I recently had a conversation with a local school teacher about that, the teacher actually gets a very small salary bonus for supervising the yearbook club, about $1,000 for the year. She said it's not worth it.

Are these photos in Europe similar to what I described or is there some other reason for them?

Also the school would get a print of each student to attach to the cumulative record.

MartinCrabtree · Aug 20, 2019

Enough. Privacy is a fallacy unless you are willing to live in a cave far in the wilderness. Even then it's not a certainty.

AgX · Aug 21, 2019

In Germany it seems even worse. German magazines reported on any photography, thus private too, this year being banned by deans at school enrollment celebrations etc.

As I indicated this originates from ignorance on the legal situation.

removed account4 · Aug 21, 2019

mgb74 said:
Now, I suspect virtually all school photos are digital. And there has been consolidation of school photography companies (at least in the US). So there is a greater threat of their systems being hacked and literally millions of photo (probably with names) stolen. Is that a real threat to the students? I can't see how but I suppose it raises a privacy concern.

that is exactly what it is. places like koffepond fotography here in the northeast/mid atlantic region have everything online and named. them and lifetuuch have the school market and school id market sewn up, so, if someone hacks in they can grab hundreds of thousands of images and names. i can only imagine a lone wolf hacker doing this and printing up hundreds of thousands of fake ID's, and defrauding unsuspecting people getting hot lunch without paying for it, or worse making quality memes using the photos. lunch is .. meh, but the memes, its the memes that will get you every time !

Nodda Duma · Aug 21, 2019

It will either drive innovators to create solutions that work within the confines of the law, or stifle imaging in a self-induced blackout of the portraits of future historical figures and the ancestors of future generations of geneologists. That is the real long-term consequence

Agulliver · Aug 21, 2019

The school I work for still does school photos, in the UK which for the time being is still part of the EU and in any case has approved the regulations into British law. We also have individual photos of each student (and staff member, for that matter) as part of the internal data system. We do specifically ask parents and kids for permission to take photographs and to store them on the school's systems. Also strict rules regarding staff using our own cameras/devices to take photos of the students - it can be done with permission and provided all photos are stored on the school's systems with no files, negatives or prints kept at home. All this appears to be within the GDPR regulations as we've been audited for compliance.

pentaxuser · Aug 21, 2019

The legislators need to ask themselves where this all ends. My young grandson recently was in a 6 a side soccer competition organised under the Football Association's Rules. There were 100's of parents,relatives. friends etc taking pictures. Could there have been someone there with a camera and an unsavoury motive for taking pictures? Yes unfortunately there could and there can be at school sportsdays but short of banning and enforcing a ban on cameras even for bona-fide parents there is little that can be done. I can imagine the reaction of parents if they were told that no pictures could be taken of their goalkeeper son's saves, their defender son's timely tackles or their attacker's son's goal.

pentaxuser

AgX · Aug 22, 2019

pentaxuser said:
The legislators need to ask themselves where this all ends.

More so as they likely not even understand the situation. For instance in Germany there is photographic privacy legislation for more than a century! However installed in the creator of art-works body of legislation. New approaches on privacy rights though emerge out of data-collection body of legislation. A complete different approach.

My impression is that even many laywers do not understand that difference...

Jesper · Aug 22, 2019

With regards to school photography in Sweden (which the original post is about) schools have had a problem with photographers taking classes away from education, requiring rooms to work in, support from staff to solve logistics and the selling pictures rather aggressively (to say the least). The schools have more or less been looking for an excuse to get rid of them so they are happy to use the GDPR for this end. It is not forbidden in any way for the class to have a picture taken but they have to do it outside class.
In this instance the GDPR is not a hindrance but a useful tool (from the school's point of view) but I'm sure that the school photography companies have a different point of view.

pentaxuser · Aug 22, 2019

So there we are. A comprehensive answer that settles the whole thread from a resident of Sweden. We appeared to have discussed a situation that doesn't exist

pentaxuser

Michael L. · Aug 22, 2019

As OP, I apologize for apparently being alarmist and perhaps overinterpreting the news item. I am happy to learn that Swedish schools having trouble with tiresome photographers benefit from the GDPR; I was not aware that school class photography in our neighbouring country was such a nuisance.
Still, it remains to be seen in practice if other genres of photography will be affected by the wider ramifications of the new regulation. Judging from other posts in this thread, I may not be alone in feeling uneasy.

AgX · Aug 22, 2019

pentaxuser said:
So there we are. A comprehensive answer that settles the whole thread from a resident of Sweden. We appeared to have discussed a situation that doesn't exist

As my hints at Germany show, there is a basic problem. Here even the german Photo-Industry Association (well what is left oft it...) these days were trickled to give a statement on (generic) photography prohibition at schools.

Alan Edward Klein · Aug 22, 2019

Everyone should ignore my avatar; it's not there; stop looking.

Sirius Glass · Aug 22, 2019

Alan Edward Klein said:
Everyone should ignore my avatar; it's not there; stop looking.

Hmmm, there is no ignore button for just the avatar.

Agulliver · Aug 23, 2019

pentaxuser said:
The legislators need to ask themselves where this all ends. My young grandson recently was in a 6 a side soccer competition organised under the Football Association's Rules. There were 100's of parents,relatives. friends etc taking pictures. Could there have been someone there with a camera and an unsavoury motive for taking pictures? Yes unfortunately there could and there can be at school sportsdays but short of banning and enforcing a ban on cameras even for bona-fide parents there is little that can be done. I can imagine the reaction of parents if they were told that no pictures could be taken of their goalkeeper son's saves, their defender son's timely tackles or their attacker's son's goal.

pentaxuser

In Britain, going back to the 90s, there have been individual schools and councils who have tried to persuade parents that taking photographs of school plays, concerts and sports days is banned. However it has been made clear by successive governments that no such ban has ever been made. It has been individual LEAs and schools, probably worried about unsavoury characters, who have tried to instigate local bans. Even GDPR doesn't actually ban parents or schools from photographing children. Most schools in the UK have ended up with a fairly sensible approach regarding parents and relatives which is that they're permitted to photograph and video school events which involve their children with provisos. Firstly, every child and parent at the school where I work chooses whether to sign a form allowing such photography (and photography by staff). If any child who has not signed this form is in the production it is made clear that child cannot be in any photograph/video. Parents are also encouraged to concentrate on including their own kids in the pictures.

We do, sadly, live in an age where photographers are treated with suspicion. I've been accused of being a paedophile simply for taking an SLR to the beach on a trip out with friends.

Berkeley Mike · Aug 25, 2019

People seem unable to feel that they can effect the major concerns in their world that effect them every day: taxes, health cost, cost of living, paying for wars, mass murder, hate crimes, crazy leaders, and etc. They take that and aim their concerns where they feel they can have an effect, needed or not, on issues like this school photo thing regardless of it being an extremely low probability. What if, what if, what if...? You can't be too careful. I read on the internet that a child (fill in the blank here) If it saves one life. All fallacious in the greater picture. All hooked up to fears.

jtk · Aug 25, 2019

Sirius Glass said:
I understand the EU concerns about privacy and I agree with almost all of them, but this is overreach.

Why? How?

tballphoto · Apr 8, 2021

Thats funny here in the USA, in my area the local school system spent years creating a dataabase of ALL students with pictures, names, and street addresses. A real whos who list for pedophiles.

fs999 · Apr 8, 2021

I don't understand what (general) data protection has to do with class photos ?!

Bad day for school class photographers

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency