Disclaimer
The Scottish Government seeks to ensure that the information
published on the Ready Scotland 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. If in
doubt about any legal obligations or the current statutory position
you should obtain your own independent advice. 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 Ready Scotland 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 Ready Scotland 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 Google
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.
Collection and use of personal information
Information collection
The Scottish Government is the sole owner of the information
collected on www.readyscotland.org. 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 Ready Scotland
website, but a user must register if they wish to receive updates
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 address: 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 website.
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: www.readyscotland.org
