Remember when school pictures were printed and shared as physical copies? I used to beg my mom to order wallet-sized photos so I could trade them with friends in elementary school.
Today, school pictures are stored and ordered online. While digital access is convenient, it also raises important questions about school photo privacy and data security.
At Real Life Photo Co., a Denver school portrait company, protecting your student’s school pictures and personal information is our top priority. Here’s exactly how we keep your images safe.
Private Online School Picture Galleries
We know that your privacy, and the privacy of your students, are of the utmost importance. Working with children can be such a sensitive matter as they are our most vulnerable population. When it comes to hosting student images online for families, we wanted to make sure we were working with a company that would keep things private and safe.
Enter GotPhoto. The number one reason that we chose to work with GotPhoto was that every student’s photo album is protected by a unique access code. Only the guardians of the students have access to their images, as well as anyone they might choose to share that information with. We don’t just give this information out to anyone that asks. We are vetting inquiries and asking the important questions before sharing anything.
How We Protect Student Data
Another way we ensure privacy and safety is by limiting how long we retain data. In order to make picture day run smoothly we work with the schools to obtain student roster information. We are extremely careful to protect this information. It is only ever used to prepare for picture day as well as share student gallery information. It is deleted at the end of the school season. We never use this information outside of its intended purpose. We make this very clear to our schools and it is detailed in our school agreement that is signed by each school we work with.
Limited Student Image Retention
For our storage, as well as your privacy, we only keep one additional school year’s worth of images online for families in the event that they missed ordering photos or need additional items. For example, in our online proofing and ordering system we have our current school year, 2025/2026, plus last year’s images in archive. Once this current school year ends, those archived school year will be removed from the system for good and the current school year moves into archive.
We store all images on a protected external hard drive for up to three years. No one outside our company has access to this drive. This is a standard practice we put into place when we started our Denver school portrait company. There have been occasions where we have had to pull out older image files for families or teachers that needed them in a different capacity outside of our school agreements and it’s nice to have a few years worth of older images on file for those instances.
Student Photo Privacy
We love sharing what we do! We are artists and creatives and we love for others to see our work. But we are not going to share that work at the expense of another’s privacy. If we are interested in sharing a student’s photo from picture day, or any behind the scenes images and videos, we are always careful to ask permission first. Any image you see on any marketing we produce has a signed model release to go with it.
If a local Colorado school we work with approaches us about using a student image for something outside the scope of our agreement, we ask them to obtain permission from the family before allowing the use of an image. Just because we took the school pictures at their school does not mean they have unlimited access to those student images.
A Local Denver School Photography Company You Can Trust
Real Life Photo Co. is a small, privately owned, local Denver, Colorado school portrait company. We are not part of a larger volume school portrait company umbrella. It’s just us! That means you don’t have to worry about us selling your information and the information we do have is being seen by very few people. We have been very careful to do our due diligence to make sure the programs and platforms we use to process images and host images are on the up and up to keep you secure. We are handling all your data and images from start to finish. That means we’re the ones communicating with schools, preparing rosters, taking your photos, editing your images, and answering your questions. Keeping this business small and customer focused is our priority.
Bottom line is, if you ever have any questions about your student’s safety and security, please ask! We would love to chat more. We hope you see that the heart behind our business is to keep you and your family safe, while providing you with an amazing quality product.
FAQ’s About School Portrait Privacy
Who has access to my child’s school pictures?
Outside of our company, only those with a student’s access code can view student images online. In work with some schools to provide the student images for the school’s data software and yearbooks if requested.
How long are school photos stored?
In the online proofing system, up to two years. On our company hard drive, three years.
Can you share my child’s picture without permission?
Absolutely not! We only ever share images if a parent or guardian of a student signs model release. That goes for the school too! If they wish to use an image of your child outside of our agreement, they must obtain permission.
