My gas station was a mystery shop, not a revealed audit. This guy was flat out paranoid. The shop is still on the board. I was out that way again yesterday and just sailed on byyyyyyyyyyyyy.

I did call the police when a gas station owner told me I could not take indoor pics. This was in a major US city, so the police had other things to do. The dispatcher said to watch out because he could charge me with trespassing. I told her he was acting suspiciously for a gas station clerk.

FYI, this is probably not well known to MS'ers, but is well known to me with a Photo background in Art. Depending on where the pics are being taken, even if it seems like a public place, it might be illegal. There are many cases involving documentary photographers. This is as worth checking the laws in your state and what is considered "public" as are the laws for recording. This stuff can have huge fines, and there are many cases that the pix seemed innocuous, but the courts upheld the rights of property owners. It varies a lot by locality. Wother noting, and this is why some of the better MSC's that request photo's also state not to take one if it seems you will be under survelilance for doing so. In my area, cameras and people taking vacay photos are a dime a dozen. I even took pix of empty areas at an airport, one shop. But in other areas, tourists don't rule and local or state/federal laws do. There is a lot of case law history on photography in public places, and most of it has nothing to do with MSng, something I bet many MSC's never consider.

I did a McD's that required pix that the mgr. okayed but the customers started complaining about one time, Lisa. :-)

dee shops Wrote:
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> something I bet many MSC's never consider.

Or I think in some cases they know, but just avoid in efforts to get the shop done. The jobs I'm doing now are competitive pricing audits so it's not like the companies have given permission to have the shops done. The directions pretty much say just sneak in and try not to be seen.

Oh, I know on those. But I was specifically referring to the legality of the photography.

On most of the "reveal-photo required" shops that I have done, the instructions specifically indicate not to take photos of any customers. I would imagine that when the client is the owner/corporation, there would not be any problem of tresspassing as I would assume they have the right to see photos of their establishments. What comes to mind are the vitamin store audits, fast food "congratulations" or "Oops" reward shops as well as a major cell phone company as a POP compliance.

I really don't know about the legality of photographing objects such as a menu board or overall photo of a business, but I think the privacy issue of photographing people without permission is a definite no-no.
JMO.

I would suspect this would also apply to "video shopping."

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2010 06:36PM by RJR.

Yes, my fear is that if someone ended up getting fired from a video, I could end up in court. And, if it's deemed that I compromised the individual's privacy in some way, I could be held liable. I have not seen any discussion of the legality of photographing an individual without his/her express permission in different states. What would this mean to video shops? It could be illegal in the state in which you reside ..... and would the MSP know .... or even care?

[www.bobatkins.com]
[www.krages.com]

One deals more with public places, the other with private. Public is more legal but since 911 has been fraught with photographer harrassment.

Malls are public places that are privately owned. If I go to Joe's Store, and Joe's store is located on Joe's company's land, and Joe's Store hired the MSC to shop the store and requires a photo, then yes, the permission is there. However, Joe's store may be in Janice's Mall, which though is a place open to the public, is private property. The owner sets the rules. Some mall security folks will stop you if they see you photographing, depending on the rules the owners have set.

The biggest issue is photography during competitor shops, especially if private property owned by the competitor. They have not granted any permission to photograph. I would not do one of these that required a photograph to be accepted.

Laws also vary greatly within localities, with localities limiting photography more.


And of course, then we just have issues with poorly trained security people who don't know the laws and assume you are guilty of something.

Here, everyone has a camera out and I don't worry about it. But there are places I have lived that I would, and government property is really dicey to me.

This is a little off subject, but in a Bar Intigrity scenerio, you can be called to court to testify...say you catch a Bartender stealing, since they have you on camera, you can be an expert witness for the client. My question is, do you get paid for this.....

Interesting thread.

I'm interested in support, if any, shoppers received from the MSCs. Did you get an apology, full payment, anything?

Thanks.

vlade5394 Wrote:
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> Interesting thread.
>
> I'm interested in support, if any, shoppers
> received from the MSCs. Did you get an apology,
> full payment, anything?
>
> Thanks.


A few months ago I was doing a gas station shop for CoRI. I was able to get two of the five required photos when a customer (I am assuming he was a regular as he seemed chummy with the manager) ran into the store section, then came back out followed by a manager that told me to leave. I was paid in full for the shop.

OMG. You still have should been paid for the shop. That was a circumstance out of your control. Just like showing up for one that is closed. You still get paid.

I did one once and was so used to paying at the pump and on this one I had to make a purchase inside that after I left I realized she didnt charge me for gas. I called the station to let her know what happen and she was very rude about ti and had already called the police. Forge the fact I was nice enough to call as soon as I realized what I did. Hmmm if I wanted to steal gas why would I have called the station right away. Drrrrrrr!

I have only been chased once. I was doing a price audit at FF and was out taking pictures of the menu board at the drive thru. It is publicly displayed, and presumably they want people to read it. Out came the manager asking what I was doing? He probably thought I was a terrorist planning to blow up his menu board! Anyway, I explained my neice was doing a marketing assignment for college and wanted me to get information on their prices, how the products were presented, and which ones had pictures, etc. I figured it was easiest to just take a picture and let her figure it out.
He asked me to leave (I think it was "Get the hell off our property." and I gladly left. Never go against what the manager tells you to do.

Glabow Wrote:
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> He asked me to leave (I think it was "Get the hell
> off our property." and I gladly left. Never go
> against what the manager tells you to do.


Burger King by any chance?

I had the same thing happen to me similar to this several months ago

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2010 12:32AM by shopaholic127@aol.com.

I think I get the gold star. Recently, I performed a CS shop bank route for two banks in Victoria. By the end of the route, I was put on a bank watch list. When I got home and went to my regular bank, they informed me that I had been put on a watch list so that everytime I go into any bank, it send up a red flag. Now does that win anything? LOL

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2010 05:30AM by coquetter.

Congratulations, I guess. It is one of the reasons to scatter bank shops at the same client throughout the month. I try very hard not to do two transactions to my account on the same day. And wherever it is feasible, I do a transaction that does not require me to be a customer and use an alias at the platform.

Referencing photos, my training in photo law while in journalism school (pre-911) was that a public place was fine for photo taking. I never had problems of any kind. In fact, a photo appeared in our local paper today of a group shot of Tea Party event goers, and this paper always publishes pictures of festival goers. No one to my knowledge has ever complained. (I think of people not wanting their stalker to know where they are or the child abusing ex-spouse to locate the children.) As an auditor, I am sometimes asked by customers what I am photographing (such as themselves), usually as a joke. I tell them I'm not allowed to take pictures of people. For the assignments in which a photo of the cashier is expected, I tell the cashiers I want to take their pictures. Few say no. Some of them are pleased that I show it to them afterwards. In these days of doctoring photos, your face could appear on my body. That's scary--LOL. It seems that a cell phone would be easier to be unobtrusive with. Today, I saw two photo flashes as I exited my grocery store. There was an event going on, but I never saw the photographer. I hope that the average citizen is very careful about 9/11 issues. Those of us who can remember the Cold War and all the scare tactics then would certainly remember stories about Soviets pretending to photograph a person but really photographing what's behind that person. Like me, you have probably heard lots of rumors about your local area in reference to a suspected terrorist(s) being caught and it never makes the local or regional news media's reports.

I never heard that before being chased during mystery shopping. What is this world coming too? You can meet some crazy people these day.