Taking Photographs at Networking Events (as an attendee)

With visual content such as photography and videos becoming a more and more important part of marketing and social media strategies. It is inevitable that people take more photographs at networking events.

This might be paired with a social media post, a PR opportunity or a blog post on a website.

If you are posting for personal use and in your personal capacity, then just keep it professional and appropriate. It is unlikely you need to worry about GDPR if it is purely personal use.

If however, you are taking photographs in a corporate capacity on behalf of a business and are looking to share these online, on your website, or for commercial purposes. You will also want to consider whether the photographs of people at events could be potentially considered as personal data and therefore be caught by GDPR.

When are photographs personal data?

Taking and retaining photographs of people at events could potentially be considered as personal data (if you can identify them). Where you are sharing the name and image of a person and these are directly linked – or are capable of being linked – then the person can be identified. This will clearly be personal data and you should seek consent for these types of photographs.

Photographs that don’t require consent.

Where you are taking “situational images” or group images where people cannot be easily identified you may or may not require an individuals consent. These types of photographs are considered lower risk and therefore are more commonly used.

Equally, if the persons being photographed are unrecognisable, e.g. if they have their back to the camera, or they appear out of focus then their consent is not necessary.

A lot of event photography for smaller events, therefore, will focus on the speakers, hosts and photographs of the room from the back or of large crowds.

Finally, for networking events, it is usually the case that people are there to network and to promote themselves and their companies, therefore in most cases it would be unlikely that they would have any issues with photographs. Therefore you could seek to rely on legitimate interests. Again, to minimise any risks you should, of course, use professional and appropriate photographs of people smiling happily and just simply having a good time at the event.

Nothing in this blog post is to be taken as legal advice on GDPR. It is only intented to give you points that you may need to consider. Please visit the ICO website for full information on GDPR including how to carry out your own risk assessment.