ProntoTag · Archive

For the releases
you already hold.

Some shoots happened years ago. Some models have moved on and cannot be reached. And a great deal of content is bought rather than shot, arriving with a folder of paperwork attached. In none of those cases is a ProntoTag available — but doing nothing is not the only alternative.

The Archive stores what you already have, binds your account of it to a verified identity, and records honestly why nothing stronger was possible.

Upload a release Can you reach the model? Use ProntoTag
Where This Sits

This is the weakest
of our three options

We would rather tell you that plainly than have you discover it during a dispute. If you shot the content and can still reach the model, close this page and create a ProntoTag instead. If you bought the content, this is a different matter: a ProntoTag was never available to you, and 28 C.F.R. § 75.2(b) points here. Then the question is not which tool, but how complete the file you were given is.

Strongest

ProntoTag

Both parties identity-verified. The model is notified and actively confirms consent for that specific content.

  • Model verified by ProntoID
  • Model actively confirms
  • Consent bound to content
  • Recorded at the time
  • Withdrawal channel
Learn more
Strong, narrower

ProntoRelease

One verified identity — but that identity is the person depicted. Account-level authorisation for self-posted content.

  • Model verified by ProntoID
  • Model actively confirms
  • Consent bound to content
  • Recorded at the time
  • Withdrawal channel
Learn more
Weakest as consent — but often correct

ProntoTag Archive

Only you are verified; the model's participation is asserted, not witnessed. Weak as consent evidence — yet for acquired content it is the route the regulation actually prescribes.

  • Model verified by ProntoID
  • Model actively confirms
  • Consent bound to content
  • Recorded at the time
  • Withdrawal channel
Learn more
What It Adds

Better than a drawer,
in four specific ways

The paper stops degrading

Signed releases and identification are stored encrypted at rest with a per-file KMS data key, and retrievable on demand. Paper fades, floods, moves office and gets thrown out by someone tidying up.

Your account is dated and identity-bound

Your statement about the shoot is signed against a KYC-verified identity and timestamped when you make it. A self-serving statement made today is weak; the same statement made years before any dispute arose, by a provably identified person, is a different thing entirely.

The gap is documented, not hidden

The record states plainly why a ProntoTag was not created and what your contact position with the model is. Volunteering the weakness is what makes the rest of the file credible.

Retention becomes a schedule

Records sit under a retention rule rather than in your memory, and can be produced when a platform, processor or counsel asks for them.

Gaps become a punch list

On acquired content we ask four questions about the file you were given — is the ID card number unredacted, were all aliases supplied, do you have the production date and a street address for the producer. Whatever you answer is recorded, and anything missing comes back as a list of what to ask your source for.

The second point is the one that matters most. A statement you make today about a shoot from 2019 is self-serving, and everyone knows it. The same statement, made before any dispute existed, by someone whose identity was verified against a government document, and sealed so it cannot be quietly revised afterwards — that is a materially different object. It is not consent. It is a contemporaneous, attributable account, which is the next best thing available when consent cannot be obtained.

For Acquired Content

We tell you what
your seller left out

Most files bought with content are incomplete, and the buyer usually has no way of knowing. § 75.2 lists what a record contains; almost nobody checks the delivery against it.

The same blind spot applies to scope. A release you were handed may exclude a territory or a medium you are actively publishing in — we wrote about how that happens.

So we ask, we record your answers — gaps included — and we hand you back a list of what to go and ask for. You can still submit with every box unticked. A gap on the record is worth more than a gap nobody wrote down.

The ID card number is not blacked out

Sellers may redact addresses and phone numbers. § 75.2(b) expressly does not permit redacting this number — and a privacy-minded seller reaches for it first.

Every name the model works under

Not just the one on the invoice. § 75.3 requires the record to be findable by any of them.

The original production date

What shows the identification was examined before the shoot rather than afterwards.

A street address for the producer

Not a PO box, not an email. § 75.2(b) makes it an element of the record you keep.

The Limits

What archiving
cannot do

Read this section properly. Every one of these is a real limitation, and knowing them is what stops you relying on the Archive for something it was never built to carry.

We have not verified the model

We never met them and never examined their document. What we hold is a scan you supplied and your word about where it came from.

We have not obtained their consent

Nobody on the other side confirmed anything. There is no bilateral agreement here, only your account of one that happened offline.

We cannot authenticate the paper

We cannot tell a genuine signature from a forged one, or a valid release from one whose terms do not actually cover what you are doing.

We cannot cure a defective original

If the release was too narrow, or the identification was expired, or the model was not who they said they were, archiving it preserves the problem rather than fixing it.

This does not make you compliant

28 C.F.R. § 75.2 also requires the depiction, its URL and a title index. Under § 75.2(h) no service can take on the producer’s liability.

There is no withdrawal channel from their side

A model who does not know the record exists cannot exercise rights against it. Where we can reach them, we notify them; where we cannot, we record why.

When To Use It

Four situations where
this is the right tool

Bought or licensed content

You acquired the material with its paperwork and are publishing or reselling it. 28 C.F.R. § 75.2(b) is written for exactly this, and the flow branches to match.

Legacy sets

Shoots from before you used any verification system, where a signed paper release exists and the content is still published or still earning.

Uncontactable models

People who have moved on, changed names, left the industry, or whose details you simply no longer hold.

Platform or processor requests

When an acquirer, payment provider or platform asks what documentation you hold for older material, and the honest answer is currently “a folder somewhere”.

Before a catalogue sale

Buyers do diligence on records. A structured, dated, identity-bound archive is worth more at sale than a box of paper, even where it cannot be upgraded.

Bought it rather than shot it? Say so at the start. The flow branches: you are never asked to claim you were at a shoot you did not attend. Instead you record your source and their street address — the element 28 C.F.R. § 75.2(b) is specific about — and confirm what you actually received. See our guide to buying content and § 2257 for what a complete file looks like.

The Awkward Questions

We ask things
you may not want
to answer

Two fields in the upload flow do most of the work, and both of them invite an uncomfortable answer. That is deliberate. An honest record is worth more than a flattering one, and every option we offer is accepted without judgement.

How precisely do you know the date?

Exact day, month and year, or year only. For older material, pick what you actually know. A guess recorded as an exact date is worse than an honest approximation — because precision that turns out to be invented calls everything around it into question.

Can you still reach the model?

From “they can be reached but have not completed a ProntoTag” through to “I hold no contact details at all”. This is the question a regulator asks first. Answering it before anyone asks, rather than reconstructing an answer afterwards, is most of the value here.

The Model’s Position

Someone else’s data,
uploaded without them

We should be direct about what is happening here. You are uploading another person’s identification document and signed release, and in most Archive cases they do not know you are doing it. That is lawful in the right circumstances, but it is not consequence-free.

ProntoID is an independent controller of the record. Where personal data is obtained other than from the individual, Article 14 GDPR generally requires them to be informed — with an exception at Article 14(5)(b) where doing so would involve disproportionate effort. Your recorded contact position is what that assessment rests on, which is another reason to answer it honestly.

Models can contact us directly at privacy@prontoid.com to exercise their rights, and we will never ask anyone to send us images to prove who they are. Documents are encrypted at rest with a per-file KMS data key.

Frequently Asked Questions

Straight answers

Is this as good as a ProntoTag?

No, and we will not pretend otherwise. A ProntoTag is bilateral: both parties are identity-verified and the model actively confirms consent for that specific content. An archived paper release is unilateral — only you are verified, and the model's participation is something you assert rather than something we witnessed. Where you can still reach the model, create a ProntoTag. The Archive exists for the situations where you genuinely cannot.

Then what does archiving actually add?

Four things a drawer cannot give you. The paper is preserved, encrypted and retrievable rather than degrading in a filing cabinet. Your account of the shoot is bound to a KYC-verified identity and dated at the moment you make it, rather than being asserted years later during a dispute. The reason bilateral consent was not obtained is recorded contemporaneously — which is the question that actually gets asked. And the record sits under a retention schedule instead of your memory.

Does this make me § 2257 compliant?

No. It helps you hold and retrieve part of what 28 C.F.R. § 75.2 requires. The regulation also requires a copy of each depiction, the URL where it is published, and indexing by title — and under § 75.2(h) engaging any records service never relieves the producer of liability. The Archive is storage and attestation, not compliance certification.

Why do you ask whether I can still contact the model?

Because it is the first thing anyone reviewing the file will want to know, and answering it before a dispute is worth far more than answering it during one. Every option is accepted — including that you hold no contact details at all. We are recording the position honestly, not judging it. An optimistic answer helps you far less than an accurate one.

Why does the date precision matter?

Because a guess recorded as an exact date is worse than an honest approximation. If you only know the year, say so. A record that claims precision it does not have is the kind of detail that undermines everything around it when examined closely, whereas an acknowledged approximation is simply an acknowledged approximation.

The model does not know I am uploading their ID. Is that lawful?

It can be, but it creates obligations. ProntoID is an independent controller of the record, and where personal data is obtained other than from the individual, Article 14 GDPR generally requires them to be informed. Article 14(5)(b) provides an exception where doing so would involve disproportionate effort — which is precisely why we ask you to record your contact position. We handle notification where contact is possible, and document the position where it is not.

Can the model object once they find out?

Yes, and they can contact us directly at privacy@prontoid.com. They have rights of access, rectification, objection and erasure, subject to the Article 17(3) exceptions where a record is needed for legal claims or a legal obligation. If they dispute that they signed the release at all, that is a matter between you and them — but the dispute will be recorded against the file.

Can I use this for content I bought from another producer?

Yes. Tell us at the start that you acquired it, and the flow changes: you will not be asked to say you were at the shoot or that you examined anyone's identification, because you were not and you did not. Instead you record who you got it from and their street address — which 28 C.F.R. § 75.2(b) makes an express element — and confirm what you received from them. That provision exists precisely for people in your position, so this is the designed route rather than a workaround.

This page is general information, not legal advice. ProntoID and Brooks & Keitt Sàrl are not a law firm.

Try the model first

If there is any chance of reaching them, a ProntoTag is worth far more than an archived paper release. The Archive is here for when that chance has genuinely gone.

Create a ProntoTag Upload a paper release

Brooks & Keitt Sàrl  ·  Place du Midi 30, 1950 Sion, Switzerland