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Vloggers/influencers at parks and attractions- Is filming or photographing others without their permission ok?

How would you feel if you saw yourself in a video/photo or being filmed/photographed?

  • I'm happy with it, don't mind

    Votes: 31 52.5%

  • I'd be happy with it if they asked first

    Votes: 7 11.9%

  • I'd rather not, even if they asked

    Votes: 16 27.1%

  • Don't even try, take it down!

    Votes: 5 8.5%
  • Total voters
    59
Skyscraper

Skyscraper

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Nemesis
After finding myself in various photos and videos from Saturday's event at Paulton's and listening to @GooseOnTheLoose's thoughts on TS Discord, I thought I'd start this thread. In some of the media I look ok but others make me feel slightly uncomfortable, but I just have to accept that. What do you think, and how would it make you feel?
 
My views and opinions have changed on this particular subject more times than I can shake my caboose. Having worked in the traditional film, television and corporate videography world, I'm aware that consent is absolutely paramount. Whenever you go to an event which is being recorded, you're alerted by signs. You're asked to fill out consent & image release forms. You're always, usually, asked for your permission. There are agreed professional standards which everyone adheres to. You ensure that the person you're filming knows exactly what you're filming, where it will appear, where it will be used, and you give them your contact information. With the introduction of GDPR a few years ago, meticulous privacy and release forms are now standard.

There used to be an understanding of a practice known as implied consent. When you were filming a vox pop on a street, you'd usually have a big broadcast camera, a small crew, a large tripod. You were clearly visible. If someone decided to walk through your shot, into the background, that was implied consent. It used to help that cameras were of grainy quality, or shooting on low res standard definition formats. It got a little more uncomfortable with HD. With 4 - 8K cameras in everyone's pockets, smaller than ever, showing every minute detail and allowing for uncomfortable amounts of digital zooming, I feel like the rules about implied consent need to change a little.

The rise of the vlogger revealed a lack of professional media training. This is part of vlogging's charm. It feels real. You can relate to the content creator. It's why they get more of a free pass when it comes to standards, but I do feel as though this needs to change. There is an arrogance, or perhaps an ignorance, in filming whatever you want and be damned the consequences or anyone who gets into your shot. I have asked vloggers before, when they're filming a train coming into a station and I'm on the front row, if they could please not use the footage. I haven't consented to them filming me, it feels like a little bit of an invasion of privacy when you know that the content is likely to be used for a publicly accessible video, for the world to see.

Theme parks are publicly accessible places, yes, and as such there isn't the full expectation of privacy that you'd have in your own home. There is the same expectation of privacy though as if you were out shopping, or eating in a restaurant, or going out for other entertainment. You / me are spending some quality time by ourselves, or with our loved ones, enjoying our own private day out and our own private experiences.

The general rule of thumb with privacy laws, is the expectation of privacy and identifiable information. With the advent of ultra high definition and fidelity cameras, your face becomes identifiable information; especially with the giant leaps made with publicly useable facial recognition technology. The future where you can take a photo of someone and then perform a search for their face across YouTube videos, social media posts, or anything published to the internet is very much here. When you no longer control where your face, or your image, gets published or used, this could be a stalker's dream tool and the small amount of privacy you did have in public gets eroded.

Vloggers gotta vlog. I get that, I understand the need for creating engaging and entertaining content. Vloggers also have to remember to respect the subject that they're filming. There were a few vloggers outside the splash pad at Paultons on Saturday, with their cameras strapped to their chests, or generally waving them about in their hands, filming children splashing about in the water on a hot day. This didn't sit right with me. It didn't sit right with me that vloggers were filming small children going around on Splash Lagoon, making no attempt to blur out their faces in later videos, or even asking people if they could use the footage.

My OH has a sensitive job, but also has a general anxiety about their appearance. Going to theme parks used to be our escape, but slowly it's become a rather tedious and stressful experience for them the moment they see a vlogger. Drayton Manor was very much their park when growing up, Shockwave was the ride that they always looked up to, it was their Nemesis (if you will). When closing day was announced they very much wanted to go and be there, as an enthusiast for the coaster and the park, but a lot of the day was spent dodging cameras and asking vloggers very nicely to "not use that bit". My OH's experience on the park, and on the ride, was very much negatively impacted by content creators chasing Watch Time and Adsense numbers. There's an argument to be had of "don't go on this day, because you know vloggers are going to be there", which I accept, but it's hardly an exclusive press event and shouldn't the park be for the fans, the casual visitor and the enthusiasts, more than the vlogger? Shouldn't the vlogger have to accept and bend to the will of our needs and preferences, vs ours?

I'd say that there's a common sense solution to all of this, but I'm not sure there is. Obviously there's a difference between filming Stealth as it absolutely shoots off with that launch vs a very slow shoot the chute. Obviously there's a difference between a wide angle shot of Nemesis Reborn tearing through its layout, vs The Wave slamming into the station on those brakes.

I'd very much like vloggers to start to follow the tried and tested standards set by their professional counterparts, but I understand that this isn't easy as a one man band. I'd like them to be more mindful of the guest experience when creating their content, to be more aware of their surroundings and how, perhaps, that not everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame.

🪿
 
I agree with the previous poster - if I’m just in the background then it’s fine (especially at a vloggers event) but if it was a close up of me on a ride for an extended period for example then I think I should give permission and definitely if it includes children.
 
As someone who did used to suffer from general anxiety, I honestly wouldn't mind the French approach to privacy and photography.

Street Photography Laws in France

Read about photography related laws by country. Drones, street photos, publishing with references and examples.
law.photography law.photography

If you don't give your absolute consent, then it can't be published, and if it is, you reserve the right for it to be taken down (if it's commercial use)

And I wholeheartedly agreed is with goose 🪿, vloggers should be more mindful about those in the back of shots, it's very often you see folks hiding their faces in the background when said vloggers decide to set up their background shot at a busy pathway or queue entrance.

They do have the opportunity to do another take if someone is obviously upset about their inclusion in the back of shot!
 
I don’t like it, for serious and not serious reasons.

Serious first:
The chimp is under 18. She does silly things sometimes, and has a right as a child to do these without them being documented. Therefore, she does not need to be captured in the background of a vloggers video and posted to the internet. (Hell I’d argue adults have the right to do silly things and not be filmed.)

I don’t really want random people to be able track me down by being nosey and doing image searches.

And finally, the less serious, I might have told people I’m somewhere else. I do not need video proof that I’m sometimes a bit of a fibber.
 
Only a bit of a fibber.
Dearie me...must try harder.

Every time I have to change my work hours to accommodate a punter's (usually medical) appointments...I get...
"You bloody liar, you are going to the Beach again...", from a couple of my regulars in particular.
 
When chimp is at her dad’s I didn’t used to tell her if I was off out to play at a park… however the troublesome simian worked out how to track my phone through the family sharing app and I used to get a load of grief…
You need to teach me the ways @rob666 (although I have now figured out how to switch phone location off)
 
You see, mobile phones, there's your problem.
My best mates daughter loves pub lunches out with us...she loves trying to spot the lies...we have told her millions.
Recent favourite, a load of (real) twitchers were watching a flock of little birds in a tree in Skipton...
Now young lady, they are watching because the birds are actually fish, but they shed their skin around the Med, lose their scales, slowly crawl out of the sea and sprout feathers.
Then they all fly to Yorkshire to breed in the trees by rivers and canals.
In the autumn, they lose their feathers on the river bank, grow new scales, and all head back to the med for the winter as the water is warmer there.
Standard avian/piscine crossover migration...there are only three species that do it.
Tight Yorkshiremen use the moult feathers to stuff their pillows.
That's why you never hear of pillows being manufactured in Yorkshire.
 
Unfortunately the law is pretty clear that it is not illegal to take photographs of or film people in a public place. This includes taking pictures of and filming children. So whether you like it or not, if you're going to a public venue such as a theme park, concert or sporting event, you just have to be prepared for the fact that someone might film or take photographs of you.

Taking photos of you when you are in your home or garden where you can expect privacy is a completely different matter.

www.avonandsomerset.police.uk

Report someone taking photographs in a public place | Avon and Somerset Police

There is no law preventing people taking photographs in a public place, providing they are not considered to be indecent.
www.avonandsomerset.police.uk www.avonandsomerset.police.uk
 
NuttySquirrel said:
Unfortunately the law is pretty clear that it is not illegal to take photographs of or film people in a public place. This includes taking pictures of and filming children. So whether you like it or not, if you're going to a public venue such as a theme park, concert or sporting event, you just have to be prepared for the fact that someone might film or take photographs of you.

Taking photos of you when you are in your home or garden where you can expect privacy is a completely different matter.

www.avonandsomerset.police.uk

Report someone taking photographs in a public place | Avon and Somerset Police

There is no law preventing people taking photographs in a public place, providing they are not considered to be indecent.
www.avonandsomerset.police.uk www.avonandsomerset.police.uk
Click to expand...
Very aware of the criminal laws surrounding this, but thank you for providing an excellent source.

Theme parks aren't public land, although they are publicly accessible, and so it's entirely at the park's discretion as to what types of photography / videography they allow. You'd also have a strong civil case, as a potential infringement on a reasonable expectation of privacy in this area, through HRA. I'm aware of colleagues who have had such a threat, after not sufficiently clearing consent and image releases at private functions. Parks could also enforce their own bylaws, like they do with vaping and drone use (as an example), to control problematic, or invasive, recording. They could also ban it outright if they wanted to.

Just because something isn't criminal, it doesn't give everyone a free pass. As we don't live in a Napoleonic Code system, we only have laws to exclude behaviour, not to permit it, which means that everything is legally permitted unless stated otherwise.

We can expect vloggers to behave, and strive to behave, better and professionally. After all, if it becomes problematic for enough guests and the parks take notice, they could enforce their own actions.
 
It may not still be the case, but I have seen staff at the Sandcastle insist that customers put their phones away, for the respect and privacy of other customers.
They have a specific officer on duty to deal with the matter, and any photography is supervised by staff, in specific areas, with no other customers in close shot.
I was surprised to see the staff spring into action very quickly...impressive.
Then the staff ruined it by offering me assistance getting out of the water coaster thing.
Do I look that old?


OK.
 
Being in the background or being filmed on a theme park ride and ending up in the vlog is one thing, but having your photo used in a thumbnail without permission as I believe happened to @Skyscraper crosses the line for me.

The vlogger is essentially using strangers to promote their video without consent. Feels icky.
 
AT86 said:
Being in the background or being filmed on a theme park ride and ending up in the vlog is one thing, but having your photo used in a thumbnail without permission as I believe happened to @Skyscraper crosses the line for me.

The vlogger is essentially using strangers to promote their video without consent. Feels icky.
Click to expand...
Yeah I was a bit surprised by that I must admit. I know where that still is from mind, surprised they didn't use the footage in the vlog.
 
Chessington at one point we're stopping people and demanding to inspect their photo library due to claims of privacy around a stalled dragons fury train (they did not appreciate my eh ehhh no hum), now that's absolutely over kill, but just asking people heyy the engineers would prefer not to be photographed would have been a reasonable request.
 
imanautie said:
Chessington at one point we're stopping people and demanding to inspect their photo library due to claims of privacy around a stalled dragons fury train (they did not appreciate my eh ehhh no hum), now that's absolutely over kill, but just asking people heyy the engineers would prefer not to be photographed would have been a reasonable request.
Click to expand...
They don't have the the right to demand to see, or remove photos on your device. In this instance, however, because the photos were of people in their workplace, they DO have a general and understood expectation of privacy and you photographing them without their permission would be considered to be an infringement.

Chessington were absolutely within their rights to stop people from taking photos on their land, and of their employees at work, but they have no right to inspect your device.
 
If you've been featured predominantly in a video without consent then probably the best approach is to see if it violates any applicable privacy policies of those websites, e.g. for Youtube see https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7671399

The author can then be required to edit you out of the video, blur your face, or delete the video etc.
 
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