Disclaimer
The Scottish Government seeks to ensure that the information published on its website is up to date and accurate. However, the information on the website does not constitute legal or professional advice and the Scottish Government cannot accept any liability for actions arising from its use. The Scottish Government cannot be held responsible for the contents of any pages referenced by an external link.
Any personal data collected through this website will be treated as confidential in line with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Cookies and Website Traffic Analysis
When users enter the Scottish Government website their computers will automatically be issued with 'cookies'. Cookies are text files which identify users' computers to the Scottish Government's server. The website then creates "session" cookies to store some of the preferences of users moving around the website, e.g. retaining a text-only preference. Cookies in themselves do not identify individual users but identify only the computer used and they are deleted on departure from the website.
Many websites do this to track traffic flows, whenever users visit those websites.
The Scottish Government website uses third-party cookies to measure use of the website including number of visitors, how frequently pages are viewed, and the city and country of origin of users. This helps to determine what is popular and can influence future content and development. For this purpose, the Government uses Visual Science Real-time Analytics to measure and analyse usage of the website. The information collected by the Scottish Government will include IP Address, pages visited, browser type and operating system. The data will not be used to identify any user personally.
Users have the opportunity to set their computers to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. The last of these means that certain personalised services cannot then be provided to that user.
Log files
Log files stored on the Government's web server allow the recording and analysis of users' use of the website. Log files do not contain any personal information.
Copyright
The information and publications on the Scottish Government's website are subject to Crown Copyright. Material may be reproduced without formal permission or charge for personal or in-house use only. For other use or if in doubt, further information is available from http://www.hmso.gov.uk/copyright.htm.
Guidance notes on publishing and copyright, including those from the Queen's Printer for Scotland, are available at http://www.hmso.gov.uk/guides.htm.
Collection and Use of Personal Information
Information Collection
The Scottish Government is the sole owner of the information collected on www.scotland.gov.uk. The Scottish Government processes personal data for the purposes of aiding its work with the Scottish Ministers to improve the well-being of Scotland and its people.
Registration
A user does not have to register to use the Scottish Government website, but a user must register if they wish to receive daily, weekly or monthly news, information and updates about the Government via email and mobile.
The registration information we require to allow a user to register is the full name and email address of the user if they wish to receive email updates, and mobile details including the mobile telephone number and network provider if a user wishes to receive messages to their mobile.
It is optional for the user to provide demographic information such as occupation and gender, and other preferences such as regions or topics of interest, but encouraged so we can provide a more personalized experience to the user.
This information is stored securely on our database until such time as a user chooses to unsubscribe from receiving news stories. Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletters and other updates may opt-out of receiving these communications by clicking unsubscribe option on any email communication received or the user may contact us to opt-out. PHONE: 08457 741 741 [charged at the local call rate from any land-line within the United Kingdom], EMAIL: newswebsite@scotland.gsi.gov.uk, POSTAL MAIL: News Website, 3W.03, St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG, U.K.
Sharing
Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.
Third Party Intermediaries
We use an outside contractor to manage our user database. This company does not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.
Service Providers
We partner with other third parties to provide specific services. For example database development, push mobile technology and hosting. When the user signs up for these particular services, we share names, or other contact information including mobile number and full contact information with the third party service providers so that the third party can supply these services. These third parties are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.
Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether or not they should proceed with services that require an outside party.
Links
This Website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, the Scottish Government, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Website.
Surveys
From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and address), and demographic information (such as postal code). Contact information will not be shared with any third parties unless we give prior notice and choice. Though we may use an intermediary to conduct these surveys or contests, they may not use users' personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.
Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as postal code, phone, email or postal address), we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users' personally identifiable information. This can be done by EMAILING our Customer Support at newswebsite@scotland.gsi.gov.uk. Or, contact us PHONE: 08457 741 741 [charged at the local call rate from a landline within the United Kingdom], POSTAL MAIL: News Website, 3W.03, St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG, U.K. Under the Data Protection Act, individuals registering for news and information from the Scottish Government have the right make a subject access request for their personal data processed by the Scottish Government for those purposes.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If, however, we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via email or by posting a notice on our Web site for 30 days.
Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:
Phone: 08457 741 741 [charged at the local call rate from any landline within the United Kingdom]
Email: newswebsite@scotland.gsi.gov.uk,
Postal address: News Website, 3W.03, St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG, U.K.
Web site URL: http://www.scotland.gov.uk
Blogs
All comments submitted are moderated in advance of being made public. There may be a time delay between submission and posting. Anything that is abusive, indecent, unlawful or defamatory will not be displayed. Individuals are personally liable for the comments they submit. E-mail addresses will not be displayed.
Please note that comments will usually be limited to a maximum of approximately 500 words.