How to Share Photos Privately with Your Family

Not everyone is keen to splash their photo all over the internet or social media. This is particularly true for families with young children, who may wish to maintain the privacy of those children and minimise their online presence. Recent reports have found that many kids will have well over 1,000 photos of themselves on social media before they're 5 years old, but sadly these photos can sometimes turn up on disturbing websites and forums. For this reason, it is increasingly common for parents to keep images of their children offline, and most people respect this. According to a report by Ofcom, 70% of people do not think it is acceptable to share images of others without permission. This can make sharing photos of special family events, such as birthday parties, christenings, or weddings for example, very difficult. How do you balance the needs of families who wish to maintain the privacy of their children with the needs of families that want to share photos of special events?

How do you share photos privately with your family on a large scale? Here’s everything you need to know: 

Create an Event QR Code 

One of the easiest ways to share photos with your family and friends privately is to create a QR code for your event with EventsAlbum. The family members attending the event simply scan the specific event QR code and then use it to upload all of the photos they’ve taken directly from their phones. You can display all the photos on a rolling live gallery as they're uploaded at the event, allowing your guests to interact with the process, but these images remain private with only those family members or event attendees that have access to the QR code that is only used for your specific event. This is a fun and easy way to share photos whilst also keeping them private. You can try a free demo here and begin the sharing process! 

Use Private Facebook Albums 

Many people already have a Facebook account, which means that using private Facebook albums is often considered one of the most straightforward ways to share event photos with your family. But before you choose this option you should consider that Facebook's privacy issues are well-documented, which means that many people prefer not to share their data with the company anymore. It’s also important to note that some families would prefer their children not to appear on Facebook, even in private albums, so this is something you consider if your event is being attended by children. 

Cloud Storage Services 

They can be both complicated and expensive to set up, but if you have a considerable number of images to share (perhaps from several big family events) then Cloud storage services allow you to share photos online privately. There are plenty of different options available, but the three companies that dominate the arena include Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive. Each of the services allows you to create a folder, upload the photos you want to share with your family, and then share the folder via email. This is ideal for large numbers of photos but can be more time-consuming to implement.