Just more corporate woke nonsense they want to try and prove they are down with the kids whilst screwing their contributors.

 

...Any thoughts?

My first thought was that I couldn't see how this could in any way be an assist in marketing the agency - they are licensing images, not the contributors who created them.

My second thought was that none of that information was any of Alamy's business.

My third thought was that it was a totally harmless set of information and that on balance, contributing to their time-wasting exercise wouldn't take long.

So I completed the survey knowing that I was of zero help to them as I'm white, old, not disabled and in most other respects boringly mainstream

I did not receive this. This kind of data collection, especially by a private company, is forbidden in France.

Don't give away your personal datas to private companies, they will resell them to whoever needs personal datas to build their business. Don't feed the beast.

So I completed the survey knowing that I was of zero help to them as I'm white, old, not disabled and in most other respects boringly mainstream

I did it thinking the same thing.  Not sure what they were looking for but pretty sure it wasn't me.

Quote from: ravens on November 15, 2021, 10:23

...Any thoughts?

My first thought was that I couldn't see how this could in any way be an assist in marketing the agency - they are licensing images, not the contributors who created them.

My second thought was that none of that information was any of Alamy's business.

My third thought was that it was a totally harmless set of information and that on balance, contributing to their time-wasting exercise wouldn't take long.

So I completed the survey knowing that I was of zero help to them as I'm white, old, not disabled and in most other respects boringly mainstream

Yes and I'm a boring minority: White, Christian, male, heterosexual, over 70, college degree, Military Vet, not a drooling blind follower of any divisive political party.

This survey was just to tell people who identify with a group, special interest, politics or origins, that Alamy really cares about you. 

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 16, 2021, 09:42

Yes and I'm a boring minority: White, Christian, male, heterosexual, over 70, college degree, Military Vet, not a drooling blind follower of any divisive political party.

That probably makes you unique!

LOL, I think there are many people who are sick of politics behind everything and everything always about the politics. Not enough, but maybe some day? How did a pandemic become a political issue, instead of a world health issue?

"The elderly, along with children and minorities, are
considered vulnerable to greater environmental risk than the
general population.  Due  to  frailty  and  the  greater  likelihood
of  pre-existing  illness,  the  elderly  are  especially  vulnerable
to  hazardous  events  such  as  natural  disasters  and  extreme
weather,  degraded  community  infrastructure,  crime,  heavy
traffic,  and  poor  air  quality."

And then they go off on how global warming will harm the elderly more than the rest of the people. Hey wake up, none of us will be here in the year 3,000  Maybe they should be making plans for when the asteroid hits the Pacific Ocean and we have the equivalent of Nuclear Winter. We'll want more heat then?

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 17, 2021, 16:10

And then they go off on how global warming will harm the elderly more than the rest of the people. Hey wake up, none of us will be here in the year 3,000 

You are Donald Trump and I claim my $100 

PS: Meanwhile, having binned the origianl email, I got another today. 

I can neither confirm nor deny that I was ever any politician, nor a megalomaniac, in any past or future life.  I'm getting at how every time something happens, it becomes an issue of politics, climate, race, gender or national origin. (and some other causes) Can't anything be, just what it is without some extended agenda, attached to the story?

Alamy is running this demographic survey, for what reason? I think their agenda is an attempt to market their own business and promote their contrived concerns for so many popular social issues. Why don't they just do like the rest and email us with messages about how concerned they are and how much they care about all of us, to promote their image.

Didn't we have some survey last year about our Exclusive images, how much we wanted to have Alamy do more to investigate and find use? Didn't it have to do with having actual exclusive images? What happened after that? Oh yeah, they dropped commissions, and still do nothing to protect our assets.

What will this new survey actually do? What use is this data for selling MY images?

Quote from: blue on November 15, 2021, 12:20

I did not receive this. This kind of data collection, especially by a private company, is forbidden in France.

Don't give away your personal datas to private companies, they will resell them to whoever needs personal datas to build their business. Don't feed the beast.

Exactly.

I too was thinking that this can't be legal.

The data they are asking is personal sensitive information.

"Data relating to religion, politics, health, etc. is considered sensitive under the EU�s data protection law and gets special protection."

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/rules-business-and-organisations/legal-grounds-processing-data/sensitive-data_en

"Sensitive personal data is protected under EU law and can only be processed by organisations if specific safeguards are in place."

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/rules-business-and-organisations/legal-grounds-processing-data/sensitive-data/under-what-conditions-can-my-company-organisation-process-sensitive-data_en

Sure, they are an UK company, but I am a citizen of an EU country. They may get away if we give them this information voluntarily, but such personal data is no way relevant in the business of selling and distributing stock photos. They have no business asking any of this.  No way it would be acceptable to use sensitive personal information in any advertorial or marketing purpose.

How are they going to use this information? How is it stored and for how long? How it protected? Who has access to it? The email was vague about it, they said they will "share it".

It would be interesting to get some answers from Alamy.

It is just a new direction of their business. The data have their own cost and become a commodity.

My guess is that Alamy has lost direction.

They cut contributor royalties, gave up unique content, began licensing RM content for perpetual use at microstock prices.
Then they realized that this is the dead end. What to do?

They decided to renew their brand to give it the weird lifestyle stocksy-ish look.

But the image base looked too normal. Too many ordinary pics of normal people, houses, gardens, animals.

But wait! Even if images look normal, contributors can be strange and different. Alamy decided to become the stock agency with the weirdest contributors in the market and start selling images with the help of contributor stories. 

Alamy came up with the plan to ask about private information from their contributors. Such as race, sex, sexual preferences, identification, disabilities, etc. They will choose the winning combinations (the more unusual, the better of course) and promote the photography of those contributors. Their images will determine the future style of Alamy. The rest of contributors who submit normal, saleable, non-lifestyle, not-activist photography will not be promoted, displayed, they will drop off Gold level to oblivion forever. They will sell less and less, as customers will look for useful images elsewhere.

Nothing of course changes the fact that a private company asking sensitive personal information is not legal -  from a citizen of an EU member country anyway. I am surprised that more of you won't address this issue?

Hi All,

Hopefully I can add some clarity here.

Firstly, this survey is 100% optional and anonymous. We will end up with % numbers against the survey questions with no identifiable information next to the answers. The data itself is not accessible other than to view results as a summary and there is absolutely zero chance of us "selling this data on" (as has been suggested in this thread).

Picture buyers in the publishing world are increasingly interested in this type of information, and when I say interested, I'm not talking about us "tapping into" some kind of trend.

We have face to face meetings with world leading publishers who ask us specific questions about where the images on Alamy come from and who takes them. They are keen to source images from a diverse mix of providers that demonstrate equal opportunities and ethical dealings. This subject has become increasingly common in our client meetings over recent times and we felt that we did not have the right level of information to inform them, but also closer to home, we want to make sure we are operating in an ethical and inclusive way.

That is the reason as to why this has been sent. The format, wording and distribution method we've chosen has been reviewed at all levels within the business and signed off by the in-house legal team within PA Media.

I hope this clears up any confusion around the survey, if you have any specific questions then please feel free to email [email protected] and the Contributor Releations team will be happy to help.

Many thanks,

James Allsworth
Head of Content

Hi All,

Hopefully I can add some clarity here.

Firstly, this survey is 100% optional and anonymous. We will end up with % numbers against the survey questions with no identifiable information next to the answers. The data itself is not accessible other than to view results as a summary and there is absolutely zero chance of us "selling this data on" (as has been suggested in this thread).

Picture buyers in the publishing world are increasingly interested in this type of information, and when I say interested, I'm not talking about us "tapping into" some kind of trend.

We have face to face meetings with world leading publishers who ask us specific questions about where the images on Alamy come from and who takes them. They are keen to source images from a diverse mix of providers that demonstrate equal opportunities and ethical dealings. This subject has become increasingly common in our client meetings over recent times and we felt that we did not have the right level of information to inform them, but also closer to home, we want to make sure we are operating in an ethical and inclusive way.

That is the reason as to why this has been sent. The format, wording and distribution method we've chosen has been reviewed at all levels within the business and signed off by the in-house legal team within PA Media.

I hope this clears up any confusion around the survey, if you have any specific questions then please feel free to email [email protected] and the Contributor Releations team will be happy to help.

Many thanks,

James Allsworth
Head of Content

 when questioned about it on their own forum, they Twice deleted threads instead of interacting with their own posters.