The answer first
Can a restoration company sell its job records and damage photos?
The firm's own readings, logs and photos can be licensed once the homeowners are out of them; the insurer's file cannot.
Ask about my restoration records Tell us where your losses are documented and how many years they span, and we will check it against the 4 documents on this board in a written reply.
What the firm made
Moisture maps, drying logs, equipment records, scopes and the photos a technician takes are made in the course of the work. Under 17 U.S.C. 201 a work made for hire belongs to the employer, and section 11 of the UK's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 makes the employer the first owner of a work an employee makes in the course of employment.
What has to come out
- People in shot
- Information relating to an identifiable person is personal data under UK GDPR Article 4: faces, names on post, house numbers.
- Health notes
- Article 9 prohibits processing data concerning health unless a listed condition applies.
- The insurer's information
- Insurers are financial institutions under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and must safeguard their customers' nonpublic personal information.
Source: The law on a restoration firm's photos, files and claims
What the software terms keep
Verisk's Xactware licence says Verisk owns Anonymous Data created or extracted through its services, and CompanyCam's terms keep Aggregated Data for CompanyCam while the customer keeps ownership of customer data. Across the board, 2 of 3 vendors read keep an anonymised or aggregated right of their own.
Who owns a photo once it is taken is on who owns the damage photos a restoration company takes.