Retention and consent policy

Documented breaks and inspections are recorded. This policy says what is recorded, who agrees to it, how long the records are kept and how they can be deleted.

Effective 2026-09-05. Retention periods are initial and will be confirmed with the practice’s insurer; changes are dated here.

1. What we record

Continuous, timestamped video of every sealed-product opening we perform; photographs of every card we document, authenticate, pre-grade or appraise; and a custody log that records who held client property, where and when.

The client consents to recording and photography by engaging the service; the engagement letter says so in plain words. Anyone who appears on camera at a break — shop staff, customers, the client — is told before recording starts and may stand out of frame. Recordings are of product and hands, not faces, wherever that is possible.

3. Retention

Break recordings: kept for seven years from the date of the break, because they are the evidence behind every pack-fresh certificate and any later dispute.
Photographs and condition sheets: kept with the report they belong to for seven years, which is also the record-keeping period USPAP expects for appraisal workfiles.
Custody logs: seven years.

4. Storage

Records are stored encrypted on the practice’s own equipment with a hashed index and an off-site copy. Nothing is stored on a retailer’s systems. The practice hosts no public server; certificate links point to an unlisted copy of the recording.

5. Who can see a record

The client, always. A buyer, through the certificate link the client or shop gives them. A grading company or insurer, when the client asks us to support a dispute or claim. No record is sold, licensed or used in marketing without the client’s written consent, and a card’s image is never used as design material.

6. Deletion

After the retention period records are deleted on a schedule. A client may ask for earlier deletion of their own records; we honour it unless a dispute or claim is open that the record supports. Certificate links stop working when the recording is deleted.

7. Publication

A recording is published — on the practice’s channel or elsewhere — only with the written consent of the client, and never in a way that shows another person’s property, identity or premises without their consent.

See also the engagement terms and the privacy policy. Questions: start here.