Image Privacy FAQ

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Getting started

How does Image Privacy work?

Add someone to your People Locker with a clear reference photo and choose their privacy level. From then on, Hail checks every new image you upload, and when it recognises them their settings are applied before the content is shared. Or, select an Advanced Rule to add organisation-wide protection to images. Time Machine Scan goes back in time to find and protect images.

Where should I start?

Add a few people to your People Locker, check the results look right, then look through Advanced Rules to see whether your organisation needs that extra layer. Consent Forms and Time Machine Scans can come later, as you need them.

Why can't I see Image Privacy in my menu?

Image Privacy is currently available to New Zealand organisations only. If your organisation has it, everyone sees it in the menu but only Consent Officers can open it - everyone else sees a padlock. Ask an owner to give you Consent Officer access from the Members page, or contact us at support@hail.to if you'd like the feature enabled.

People and photos

Do I need a reference photo?

Yes. Hail needs to know what someone looks like before it can recognise them. For the best results use a photo with one person only, looking towards the camera, in good lighting, with nothing covering their face.

How recent does a reference photo need to be?

The more recent the better. Photos older than about two years can reduce match accuracy - especially for children, whose appearance changes quickly.

Can I add more than one photo per person?

Yes, and it's worth doing if someone's appearance has changed or to make sure the person is found.

Can I protect someone who hasn't completed a consent form through Hail?

Yes. You can add anyone to your People Locker and choose their privacy level, whether or not a consent form has been completed through Hail.

What if someone changes their mind?

Update their privacy level on their person page. New uploads follow the new setting immediately. To update content you've already published in the past, run a Time Machine Scan to apply their new privacy preferences back in time.

How protection works

What happens if Hail isn't sure it's found the right person?

It asks you. Possible matches are presented for review before anything changes, and you decide whether to accept them. We apply a % to a match and advise a human to review these.

Does Image Privacy delete my images?

No. It protects people by covering their faces before content is shared. Your original images stay untouched in your media library. Deleting an image is only ever something you choose to do yourself.

Can I choose how faces are covered?

Yes. Set a Default Face cover on the Advanced Rules tab - Blur, Pixelate, an Emoji, or a custom overlay image of your own. Individual people can have their own cover style if needed but it's recommend to apply default settings for consistency across your organisation.

What's the difference between People Locker and Advanced Rules?

People Locker protects the specific individuals you've added. Advanced Rules protect every detected face - either when content goes to social media, or everywhere. They work together, and the strongest applicable protection wins.

What's the difference between People Locker and Time Machine?

People Locker protects future uploads automatically. Time Machine finds and protects people in images you've already published. Together they cover both directions.

Existing content

Why isn't an image I published last year protected automatically?

Image Privacy checks images as they're uploaded. Anything published before a person was added to your People Locker was never checked against them. A Time Machine Scan is how you go back and cover those.

Does a Time Machine Scan change my images automatically?

No. It finds possible matches and shows them to you. Every action - protect, remove, delete or leave alone - is yours to choose.

Is there a cost?

Yes, Time Machine Scans are charged per scan based on how many images fall in the date range you choose. You'll see the exact price before you commit, and can stop at that point if you'd rather not go ahead.

How long are scan results kept?

30 days. Download the PDF report before then if you need to keep a record.

What about images already on Facebook or Instagram?

Hail can protect faces in content it shares out, but it can't reach into a post that's already live on another platform. A scan will tell you where those images went so you can remove or replace them there, and you can mark them as reviewed once you have.

Consent

Can I collect consent from parents or staff?

Yes. Consent Forms let you email a request to a mail list, individual addresses, or people from your student management system. Responses come back into Hail and, once you approve them, apply automatically.

Do people need to re-confirm their consent?

They can. Set a Consent expiry on the Advanced Rules tab - anywhere from 6 months to 3 years - and Hail will prompt you when a re-confirmation round is due for People in your people locker.

What happens if someone doesn't re-confirm?

They're hidden for a one-month grace period, with a reminder sent. If they still don't respond, they're removed from Image Privacy.

Privacy and data

Is my data secure?

Yes. Reference photos, consent preferences and image privacy data are stored securely in Hail and used only to provide Image Privacy features. Face data isn't used to identify unknown people, matched across different organisations, used to infer anything about anyone, or used to train AI models.

What is Image Privacy not for?

It's designed to support privacy and safety. It is not designed for surveillance, attendance, behaviour monitoring, profiling, or identifying people you don't know.

Who's responsible for how it's used?

Your organisation. Hail provides the technology, but you decide when to use it and what to do with the results - which includes making sure you have the right authority, consent or lawful basis, and keeping appropriate records. Hail lets you record notes against each person and each scan for exactly this reason.

For anything privacy-specific, you can reach our privacy team at privacy@hail.to.