Virtual Tour providers keen to reassure agents after Devon mishap

Virtual tour suppliers have been keen to reassure agents that there need be no repeat of problems which befell a Devon agent.

Fowlers, based in the Dartmoor market town of Chagford, has apologised that private financial documents relating to the vendor were visible without the usual blurring process having been carried out.

Fowlers says the photographs and other personal material visible in the tour had ‘slipped past’ both staff and owner; it has temporarily withdrawn its 3D tours to check them before they go live again.

Now Lee Wainwright, chief executive at FocalAgent - not a supplier to Fowler’s - has commented on the issue. 

“We have rigorous Quality Assurance procedures in place to minimise the GDPR risk to vendors” he says.

“Our photographers are fully trained in the delivery of each of our products and as part of booking a site visit with the property owner, our photographers remind the vendor to remove all personal data such as photographs, certificates, bills and letters from sight before the photo shoot commences, as part of our detailed Homestaging guidance.

“Once 360 Matterport content is uploaded to our platform, our production team check every single tour in person to ensure they comply with our high QA standards. 

“If a 360 tour fails our QA standards, it is sent back to production for editing and, if necessary, the property will be revisited for a reshoot. Once an order is complete, final checks are made by the Focal production team before the content is released to the estate agent and then to the vendor for approval.”

Another provider, Pupil, says it has a dedicated digital quality control team to do QA checks before publication, with the team’s primary objective being to spot and blur sensitive information.

This includes door numbers, car registrations, personal documents, names of occupants, personal photographs and items picked up in reflections.