Online rumors linking school photography company Lifetouch to Jeffrey Epstein have prompted responses from Georgia school districts, including Fulton County and Gwinnett County.
What’s Happening: Rumors center on Leon Black, a billionaire businessman named in the Epstein files who resigned as CEO of Apollo Global Management in 2021. Lifetouch ‘s parent company, Shutterfly, was acquired in 2019 by Apollo Global Management. Due to this connection, Lifetouch’s security concerning their student photos was questioned.
What’s Important: Lifetouch CEO Ken Murphy addressed the rumors in a public statement, noting that Lifetouch is not named in the Epstein files, and that student photos were not used in any illicit activities. He said that Apollo is not involved in the day-to-day operations of Lifetouch and no one employed by Apollo has ever had access to any student images.
What Lifetouch said: Murphy said Lifetouch never shares, sells or licenses student images to train artificial intelligence models or facial recognition technology, and has never provided images for those purposes to any third party. As Murphy said, “When Lifetouch photographers take your student’s picture, that image is safeguarded for families and schools, only, with no exceptions.”
Lifetouch follows all applicable federal, state and local data privacy laws, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. They also have a decades long relationship with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and will print free SmileSafe cards that families can use with law enforcement if a child goes missing.
What Fulton County said: When asked if Fulton County Schools have had business with Lifetouch and were aware of the rumors, the district answered that it is aware of the online questions. Fulton County Schools expects all vendors, including Lifetouch, to comply with federal and state student privacy laws. The district directed families to Murphy’s public statement.
What Gwinnett County said: Gwinnett County Public Schools said it reviewed all current and open contracts with Lifetouch and found them fully compliant with privacy standards. The district said only a small number of its schools have active contracts with Lifetouch.
Gwinnett also told families they may opt their child out of all school and yearbook photographs at any time by contacting their child’s school directly. More information can be found on the Gwinnett County Public Schools FAQ page.
Other Schools: Chatham County Schools, Cherokee County Schools and Bibb County Schools did not respond to requests for comment.
Recent News: Despite statements of certainty from school districts and Lifetouch, questions remain about the trustworthiness of Apollo Global Management. On February 17, two national teacher unions pushed for the US Securities & Exchange Commission to investigate the company.
Since 2021, Apollo has insisted that any relationship with Epstein began and ended with former CEO Leon Black, but recently released records show Epstein had multiple meetings with current Apollo CEO Marc Rowan over several years. In these meetings, Rowan discussed Apollo’s financial documents and other sensitive matters.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and American Association of University Professors President Todd Wolfson say they are “troubled by Apollo’s seeming inability to be forthcoming about the extent to which Epstein was a personal, social and professional associate of the firm and its partners. We don’t know exactly what motivates that lack of candor, but it should be investigated.”
