Briefed against your spec
The target is agreed in writing before a single contributor is briefed, so assignments describe exactly the tasks, environments, and edge cases you asked for.
Our contributor network
Data collection through our own contributor network.
Firsthand does not buy footage in bulk or scrape it. A distributed network of contributors captures against your written spec, uploads through our portal, and is reviewed before anything ships, so the dataset has one accountable chain from the person recording it to you.
- Network
- Distributed contributors
- Workflow
- Portal: assign · upload · review
- Pay
- Hourly, no per-task bounty
- Consent
- Signed release per contributor
How the network works
One network, one accountable chain.
Paid for time
Contributors are paid hourly, including setup and retakes. Payment is not contingent on acceptance, which removes the incentive to pad volume with weak recordings.
Portal-based workflow
Assignment, upload, and review run through one web portal, so every recording is tied to an assignment, a contributor, and a review decision.
Discard rather than downgrade
Recordings that miss the spec, or where a bystander cannot be de-identified, are dropped and logged, not shipped at a discount.
Overview
Why collect data through your own contributor network?
A provider that runs its own contributor network can answer the questions a buyer’s counsel and a model team both ask: who recorded this, what did they agree to, what were they paid, and why was this clip accepted? A provider that resells or scrapes data generally cannot.
It also means the data is collected for your model. Nothing is gathered speculatively; contributors are briefed only once the spec is agreed.
Workflow
How does a request move through the network?
Your written spec is turned into assignments in our contributor portal. Contributors are briefed, sign a release, and capture against the assignment, using a specialized rig such as our synchronized egocentric hardware where the project needs it. Recordings are uploaded through the same portal.
Uploads missing camera telemetry are rejected automatically. Every remaining recording is human-reviewed for task match, visible hands, and staged or idle footage before it is accepted.
Contributors
Who are the contributors, and how are they treated?
Contributors are people who apply to capture for Firsthand in their own town and are briefed on each assignment. The release they sign is published verbatim on the provenance page and the for-collectors page links to it, so they know what they are agreeing to before they apply.
They are paid the hourly rate stated in their schedule for all time in session, including setup, calibration, and breaks, with no per-task bounty and no rejection clawback. They may withdraw consent for future sessions at any time and request deletion of any recording not yet delivered to a licensee.
Privacy
How does the network protect bystanders?
Contributors confirm they have not knowingly recorded anyone who has not signed a release. At ingest, faces, licence plates, and screens are detected and irreversibly blurred, then confirmed by a reviewer.
If a person cannot be de-identified, the clip is discarded rather than shipped.
Delivery
What reaches the buyer at the end?
Accepted recordings ship with metadata, consent records, and the reject log, in a human-readable, PII-free file layout. Custom collections deliver in RLDS, LeRobot, and WebDataset, plus HDF5, zarr, and Rerun .rrd.
The data is buyer-owned under a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide licence that is non-exclusive by default, with a data card recording the jurisdictions of capture and the consent basis.
Timing
How quickly can the network deliver?
Where coverage for your tasks and regions is deep, the median from signed spec to first validated batch is a median of 48 hours. Where it is thin, turnaround runs three to four weeks while recruiting expands in parallel across more regions.
A Spec Pilot, a small, fast first batch, validates the spec and accept criteria before you commit to volume.
At a glance
What you get.
- Network
- Distributed contributor network
- Workflow
- Web portal for assignment, upload, and review
- Pay
- Hourly; no per-task bounty, no rejection clawback
- Consent
- Signed release per contributor
- Review
- Human review of every recording; reject log
- License
- Perpetual, buyer-owned, non-exclusive by default
Every collection runs through the same seven-stage end-to-end custom collection pipeline. End-to-end custom data collection is a managed service that takes an AI data need from problem to owned dataset in a single accountable pipeline.
Network workflow
What the contributor network does at each stage
| Stage | Who does it | Control in place |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Firsthand, from your written spec | Nothing briefed before the spec is agreed |
| Consent | Contributor, before capture | Signed release, published verbatim |
| Capture | Briefed contributor | Hourly pay, not contingent on acceptance |
| Upload | Contributor, via the portal | Missing camera telemetry rejected automatically |
| Review | Firsthand reviewers | Human review of every recording; reject log |
| De-identification | Firsthand, at ingest | Faces, plates, screens blurred; unresolvable clips discarded |
FAQ
Contributor network data collection, answered.
- Does Firsthand use its own contributor network?
- Yes. Data is collected through Firsthand’s own distributed contributor network, with a web portal for assignment, upload, and review.
- How are contributors paid?
- Hourly, for all time in session including setup, calibration, and breaks. There is no per-task bounty and no clawback if a recording is rejected.
- Can contributors withdraw consent?
- They can withdraw consent for future sessions at any time and request deletion of any recording not yet delivered to a licensee. Recordings already delivered cannot be recalled.
- How do you stop low-quality recordings reaching buyers?
- Uploads missing camera telemetry are rejected automatically, every recording is human-reviewed, and anything that misses the spec is discarded and logged rather than discounted.
- Can I join the contributor network?
- Yes. The for-collectors page explains how to capture for Firsthand in your own town and links to the release you would sign.
- Who owns data collected through the network?
- The buyer, under a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide licence that is non-exclusive by default.
Put our contributor network on your spec.
Tell us the tasks, environments, and streams your model needs. We will quote reach, timeline, and price, and brief our own contributors once the spec is agreed.