In this weeks Going Paperless article we are going to be looking at Paperless Photography & Video Consent Forms and how going paperless with these types of forms has a multitude of benefits for all involved.

There are many different types of scenarios where you may want to take photos or videos of individuals and groups from events at schools, colleges, universities, graduations, community events, sports events, charity events…this list goes on. Depending what country you are in will depend on the privacy and data protection laws associated with taking photos and/or video of people. For the most part you will always need to inform individuals that you will be taking photos or recording video, what the photos/video will be used for and in most cases you will be required to get some form of consent. If you are taking photos/videos of children then you will absolutely need to get consent.

This article is by no means giving advice in relation to what is required in relation to your specific scenario and you should seek your own legal advice for your own circumstances. What we are looking at is the utilisation of technology to make the process of gaining consent as easy and efficient as possible.

 

Photo/Video Consent Forms are still very much completed in the traditional way of pen and paper. While this method works it poses a number of issues and risks including:

  • The time and cost associated with printing the forms
  • Printing the correct amount of forms which often leads to wasted paper
  • Difficult to read or even unreadable handwriting (we are writing less and typing more meaning handwriting is getting worse)
  • Distributing the forms effectively
  • Collecting all of the forms back in (and on time)
  • Missing or lost forms (which could lead to Data Protection issues/GDPR)
  • Sorting, transporting and storing of the paper forms

With our ever increasing use of mobile technology such as Smartphones and Tablets and the more traditional devices such as Laptops and PC’s — using paper based consent forms should be a thing of the past.

 

iPEGS offers an easy to use, cost effective way of creating Electronic Photography & Video Consent Forms that can can be accessed on ANY device, completed easily, signed electronically and submitted in a matter of minutes if not seconds.

Making it as easy as possible for the end user is absolutely key to getting your Consent Forms submitted quickly and by using a Paperless System such as iPEGS facilitates this effectively and efficiently.

Forms can be distributed to large numbers of people to be completed immediately or they can be sent ahead of time — with due dates and reminders set ensuring that no one forgets to complete and submit the form on time.

There are also more advanced features such as pre-population of the form fields making it even easier for the end user to complete the form.

Once a form has been submitted a copy of the form (PDF) can be sent to the user for their own records and you can either have the form sent to the ‘Form Owner’ or it can be submitted securely to the iPEGS Web Portal where you can access the forms as and when required. No more collecting in mountains of paper, no more risk of losing the forms and no more having to store them in a filing cabinet!

 

The vast majority of us are so used to using our Smartphones for all kinds of daily tasks such as shopping, banking, social media and much more — so the completing of consent forms electronically makes absolute sense.

So the next time you are printing out dozens of Photo & Video Consent Forms — think again…save yourself some time, save some paper, make it easy for people to complete these important forms and save some money while doing it!

For more information about how you can create your own electronic Photo and Video Consent Forms with iPEGS please click here.