Your data, your privacy

At Mediapack, we take the wellbeing of all those who either feature in the videos we produce or incidentally appear in them very seriously. We have always been concerned to ensure that anyone who is shown within a video either has explicitly given their consent or is shown in a positive light, where obtaining consent is not possible (in public places where general views are necessarily filmed for a particular production).

There are often instances where members of the public are filmed in a public place and where these shots are unavoidable or necessary in order to successfully tell the story in question or to provide a representative image of a particular place. In this instance, we will only ever use an image of a member of the public if it is necessary and if they are portrayed in a normal positive way. We will never use footage of someone doing anything which may be of embarrassment to them later or which may reveal some aspect of their behaviour which is detrimental to their wellbeing.

Filming in public places, even where no warning signs are displayed is permitted in law, as is photography. There is guidance around this principle though and it is accepted that no-one should be portrayed doing anything which might be considered embarrassing, humiliating or incriminating. If people are simply going about their daily business in a public place and they appear within a shot, which is not specifically targeting them, it is generally accepted that this is usable. If, however, anyone were to approach one of our filming teams and request that any footage of them is deleted, we will always abide by this request if it is at all possible. Where we are filming a ‘one off’ moment in a public place and a re-shoot is not possible, we may use the shot but take whatever measures we can to obscure the person in question, if that is technically feasible without also obscuring the action being filmed.

Following the switch to the General Data Protection Regulations in May 2018, we have further tightened our procedures in relation to obtaining consent and in relation to the nature of general filming in public places. In the past however, it has not always been possible, while filming for any of the projects we have undertaken, to obtain consent from people when we are filming in public places and so we have made special allocation for these situations in terms of providing a clear path by which anyone can make contact with us to discuss use of their personal image within already published videos.

Here is a simple overview of our position on existing works that were filmed prior to 25th May 2018:

• All contributors to video projects have a right to change their mind about their participation within the video and to request their removal from it.

• We will give full consideration to any request relating to a person's participation or appearance within a video and, if it is possible to remove them from it without detrimental affect to the finished work, we will happily do so.

• We will happily remove a person's name from a video title or from 'metadata' supporting a video if requested, regardless of whether they wish to be removed from a video or not.

• We reserve the right to decline a request to remove a pre-agreed contribution, where it would significantly affect the storyline or render the finished work not longer viable or where it is technically not possible to do so (perhaps because the original edit is no longer in existence), meaning the only option would be to un-publish the work and where that work is still of value to Mediapack or our clients.

• If the only option following a request to be removed from a video is for the video to be un-published and if the video itself is no longer an important piece of work for Mediapack or its clients, we will happily remove the whole video and un-publish the work.

2018 and Beyond

While the list above relates to work which has been filmed prior to the GDPR switch over in May 2018, our position on requests for removal from a production remains the same and we will do our best to accommodate any request or concern.

From May 2018, we are increasing our scrutiny of contributor consent (where we are filming for clients) and also tightening our procedures around filming in public where no consent is possible, so the only change will be that it is even less likely that someone will find themself in the position of wanting their contribution removed because far greater information and explanation of how their image will be used will be provided in advance, in plain English.

For anyone taking part in a video, you will continue to be asked to sign a release form granting Mediapack full copyright over your contribution to the video you are taking part in (this part hasn't changed). The wording of the release form will be as simple as possible and it will set out how the footage will be used, both in terms of the primary production and, also, in relation to its potential re-use within future productions (contributions are frequently re-purposed for different uses and this is invaluable for clients in terms of getting the most value out of any production).

Where possible, the release form will state the destination of the primary production (YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook etc) and also any secondary sharing which might take place. It isn't possible to state every possible channel or platform which a video might be shared across, given the nature of video sharing on social media, however the release form will list the main intended channels and also advise on the potential scope of sharing beyond the planned activity.

Storing of Imagery

No raw footage is stored in the cloud or online, so the raw footage in which a person might appear is not subject to a hacking or theft risk. The only content which is online is that which has been published and therefore in the public domain or previews for editorial consideration by clients.

Other Personal Data

We only store contact information and other data on clients and contributors with whom we are working. Within the contributor release form we will expressly seek consent from the contributor to store their basic contact info, purely for the purposes of liaising with them about their participation in this or any future productions. We will not share this contact information with any other organisation (we will seek consent within the release form for their details to be shared with the commissioning client of the video if applicable) and we will not contact the contributor in relation to anything other than their participation in this or any future video production.

If we wish to communicate further with any contributor we will always suggest that we connect on one or other social media platform, where the person in question has full control over the conversations they have and where they have additional protections in the form of privacy controls.

How to contact us

If you want to discuss any aspect of a published video or your contribution to a forthcoming video, please use the contact section on this website first of all, giving the subject as 'Video Appearance Query' and we will respond directly as quickly as possible.