North Cheshire Photographic Society Social Media & Data Protection Policy 

Introduction 

Social media is a part of daily life for many individuals and organisations; there are many benefits to making use of social media, however there are also potential risks. This policy has been developed to inform our community about how North Cheshire Photographic Society (NCPS) will take advantage of social media, whilst being mindful of responsibilities and obligations under the Data Protection 

Acts 1998, 2003 and 2018, incorporation the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

For the purpose of this policy NCPS currently use Facebook, the NCPS website and email as the main communication methods. The Upload Portal on our website is used to manage our entries to the various internal competitions. The corresponding L&CPU and PAGB portals are used to upload  images into external competitions run by these organisations. 

The policy applies to all the members of NCPS. 

Data Protection 

https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/the-data-protection-act 

NCPS needs to keep certain information regarding its ordinary and committee members to carry out the day-to-day management of the society, meet the society’s objectives and to be sure the society complies with its legal obligations. 

All personal data, defined as any data that can be used to identify a living individual, will be managed in line with the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. This means that personal information will be collected and used fairly, stored safely and not disclosed to any other person unlawfully. 

NCPS, in line with the DPA principles, will ensure that all personal data held will: · Be used fairly and lawfully 

  • Used for limited, specifically stated purposes 
  • Used in a way that is adequate, relevant and not excessive 
  • Accurate 
  • Kept for no longer than necessary 
  • Handled according to people’s data protection rights 
  • Kept safe and secure 
  • Not transferred outside the European Economic Area without adequate protection Members have the right to know: 
  • What information is held by the Society
  • How to gain access to the information 
  • How to keep it up to date 
  • What the Society is doing to comply with DPA & GDPR 

Responsibilities 

Overall responsibility for personal data in a not for profit organisation rests with the governing body, within NCPS this is the Committee who must ensure that they act in line with this policy and the data protection principles. 

NCPS processes Member contact information (address/phone number) and email addresses. Personal information is kept in applications, including word processing databases and spreadsheets 

The Data Handlers within NCPS are the Membership Secretary who will hold the master copy and the  members of the Committee. Other members may be involved in handling NCPS images for publicity  purposes. 

Members of NCPS are responsible for confirming the accuracy of their data, and making any  necessary amendments at the time of membership renewal. 

GDPR 

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 25 May 2018. There are a number of key changes introduced by the regulation; however, the impact on NCPS should be minimal due to the small amount of personal data processed. 

https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/data-protection-dpa-and-eu-data-protection-regulation 

Your images 

Members must only submit images of which they are the authors for use in competitions, or post images onto social media that are not likely to bring the Society in disrepute or cause the Society or the member to be in breach of DPA

Copyright 

Members may allow NCPS to use images elsewhere within social media when they have been submitted to the Competition Secretary, however the copyright remains with the author/member. 

It is critical that the laws governing copyright are adhered to, in relation to material owned by others and NCPS’s own copyrights and brands. 

Metadata 

https://photographylife.com/what-is-metadata-in-photography 

https://iptc.org/standards/photo-metadata/photo-metadata/ 

Metadata is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. Photo metadata allows information to be transported with an image file, in a way that can be understood by other software, hardware and other users regardless of the format. 

Metadata is essential for identification and copyright protection. Metadata can be added to your images automatically, including location, size, and file extension. Manually entered  metadata, which can describe the image and its contents, can include any data that is relevant  and descriptive, for example keywords, notes and copyright information. 

Metadata can include data that is covered by the Data Protection Acts 1998 & 2003. If your images contain metadata, be aware that this data will be shared between organisations where your images are used. 

Photographic Competitions 

Images can be submitted to the NCPS Competition Secretary for entry via the Success software into NCPS internal competitions. In addition images may be selected by the Selection Committee to represent  NCPS in external competitions, including but not limited to competitions managed by the L&CPU and the PAGB. 

If images contain metadata, this will be shared between NCPS and other organisations where the images are used.

DiCentra & the Upload Portal 

NCPS use an application called DiCentra to view images in competition, and the success software to manage competitions run by the club. The format of the images will be either PDI (Projected Digital  Image) or Print (where a PDI of the print has been uploaded to the Upload Portal). All images  uploaded are held in the Upload Portal. 

DiCentra is run as a stand-alone application on the NCPS laptop. 

Members have access to upload their images into the Success software, for use in internal club  competitions.  

All users require a user name and password to access the Success software. A user name will be entered by the NCPS Web Manager; the password is generated by the software and emailed out to the email address linked to the username. The Website  will hold a user name, an encrypted version of the password, and email address for the  user. The user will be required to change their password when first logging in to the  website. 

Data Handlers can upload competition entries onto the NCPS website and Facebook page where the images are publicly available.  

External Competitions 

Images submitted into the NCPS Competitions, or are provided to the NCPS Selection  Committee will be held in the NCPS Dropbox folder. Dropbox is a secure cloud  system providing folder storage for files that can be shared with others. The NCPS  Selection Committee has access to the Dropbox folder. 

Images may be used in competitions within the L&CPU and PAGB external  competitions, and may also be used by those organisations. 

Information Held About Non-members 

Members of the NCPS Committee may hold lists of email addresses of people who are  not members of NCPS but have expressed an interest in receiving information about  the Club, who are potential speakers at the club or who provide information to us.  Should one of these people request that we remove their email from our list(s) this  will be done promptly and without question. 

Policy Review 

This policy will be reviewed every two years.

                             

Produced by Annette Hockney, NCPS Secretary May 2018 4