Property video with neighbours in frame
A client asks you to photograph a house for a sale listing using a 1.2 kg drone. The house has a small garden; neighbouring gardens are 3 m away. One neighbour has children playing outside, and another has a hot tub. You plan to fly at 25 m AGL and record 4K video, then publish it on the property website and social media. The client says the neighbours are 'fine with it', but you have no written evidence. You also want to keep the raw footage for your portfolio.
1. What personal data is involved and what are your main GDPR obligations?
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- Identifiable images of people, including children, are personal data. Private gardens and homes can also reveal personal information about occupants.
- You and the client may each act as a controller for the footage, depending on who decides how and why it is used. You need a lawful basis for collecting and publishing it.
- Apply data minimisation: record only what is needed for the property listing and avoid neighbouring gardens and people.
- Apply storage limitation: keep the raw footage only as long as necessary for the job, then delete it.
- Be transparent about the purpose. A verbal 'they are fine with it' is not reliable evidence of consent and does not cover publication on social media.
- Do not publish identifiable neighbours or children without a clear lawful basis; if in doubt, do not capture or publish them.
2. How should you change the flight and camera work?
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- Plan a flight path and camera angle that keep the target house in frame while excluding the neighbouring gardens.
- Do not overfly or hover over neighbours. Keep the aircraft on your side of the property boundary where possible.
- Fly at a time when fewer people are outside, and use a spotter to pause recording if people enter the frame.
- Use the narrowest practical field of view and avoid sweeping panoramic shots that capture adjoining private spaces.
- Check the open-category rules on uninvolved people as well as privacy: a privacy workaround does not permit unsafe overflight.
- If incidental capture is unavoidable, plan to blur or crop before any publication.
3. What should you do with the raw footage and the portfolio request?
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- Separate the client deliverable from your portfolio use. The client's permission to film the house does not automatically allow you to reuse neighbours' images in your portfolio.
- Delete raw footage once the job is complete and any agreed edits are delivered, unless you have a specific and documented reason to keep it.
- If you keep clips for a portfolio, select only footage with no identifiable people or private neighbouring property, or blur those elements.
- Record what you retained and why. Do not upload unedited footage to social media 'just for promotion'.
- If someone asks about footage showing them, be able to locate and delete or blur it promptly.