Serious Privacy Breach!
Please seriously consider whether to use this photographer if you value your privacy. I was part of a group photoshoot, which included some images in underwear and topless. It was explicitly agreed that these photos would not be used online or shared outside the group. A member of the public (outside of the group) then discovered one of our topless photos online as the main cover album on the photographers website (viewable and accessible to absolutely anyone with the internet). When checking this, we found our images were accessible to anyone, as well as others which included newborn shoots, boudoir shoots and school photos (with the child’s full name and school name visible). The photographer was reluctant to notify and apologise to those within the group, with this only coming two weeks after the incident was brought to her attention. This incident was explained as a coding error with the website host, and we agreed to put it down as a mistake and not pursue further action. Months later, it’s now been discovered that an individual’s photo album was sent to and accessed by someone outside of the group. This is presumably as they have the same first name and the photographer has just typed that into the email field and clicked the first one that popped up without checking before sending (the other individual who received the album is not part of the group or affiliated in any way; a total stranger). This was discovered privately; the photographer did not notify either individual of the privacy breach. When asked by the person in the group where her photos were, the photographer admitted she’d input the wrong email address, but said not to worry as she’d received a bounce back to say it was invalid and could see no one had opened the album online. This is a total lie as we’ve spoken to the individual who received the album - her email is very much live, she was able to access the entire album and has the screenshots/recordings to prove it. Thankfully the individual deleted them immediately when she opened the album and saw the images. The intention of this review is to inform and warn others. As we were reassured the first incident was a genuine mistake and coding error, we agreed to not do anything further. However, now there’s been a further privacy breach and it’s been lied about, I feel I have no choice but to share our experience as I wouldn’t want it to happen to anyone else.
By Isobel