Privacy
The Health Protection Scotland website is delivered by Public Health Scotland (PHS), the national agency for improving and protecting the health and wellbeing of the people of Scotland.
We fully respect your right to privacy when using our services. Here you will find details of our privacy practices and what we do to maintain your right to privacy.
What information do we collect about you?
We collect information about you and your organisation when you access any of our services online. We only collect the information we ask from you, that you give us and where required consent to it being processed for the purpose of providing Public health Scotland services.
How will we use the information we collect?
We process your information for the purpose of providing you with services from Public Health Scotland. This includes some or all of the following:
- Managing enquires, requests and complaints, you submit to us.
- Providing opportunities to give us feedback on our products and services, to help us know what you need and improve our products and services appropriately.
We may also disclose the information to a third party where we have a legal obligation to do so. Public Health Scotland will not sell your personal information to any other organisation.
How do we look after your information?
The information we collect about you and your organisation is stored securely in Public Health Scotland systems hosted in the UK/EU.
The website is hosted on a secure server by a third party in the UK/EU, and is maintained by Public Health Scotland staff.
The principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) require us to make sure your data is accurate, kept up-to-date and that we keep it for no longer than is necessary.
To meet these requirements:
- we will update your data or remove it from our systems at your request
- we will keep your data in line with public Health Scotland data retention guidelines.
Your rights
Under the General Data Protection Regulation there are a number of rights relating to Data Protection.
You can find more information about these rights in the Public Health Scotland Privacy Notice and on the Information Commissioner’s website.
Cookies
Use of cookies
Due to changes in EU legislation, which came into force on 26 May 2012, we need to inform you about cookies we store on your device.
To allow us to meet the legislation we have implemented an 'implied consent' solution. You will have seen a bar across the top of the site informing you that cookies are used, and inviting you to acknowledge the message by clicking 'OK'. You do not need to click OK and the site will continue to function as expected. If you click OK the information bar will be removed on all pages and on subsequent visits to this site.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small files stored in your browser and are used by most websites to help personalise your web experience. This website sets a number of Google Analytics cookies. The purpose of these is described below.
This website is compliant with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) Guidance on the rules on use of cookies and similar technologies and the related Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
For additional information on cookies please see the Information Commissioner's Office.
All the cookies we set on this site are deemed to be minimally intrusive in terms of your privacy. By continuing to use this site you imply that you consent to these cookies being set.
Compliance cookies
This is a small cookie used to store your cookie preferences.
Analytics cookies
We use the Google Analytics service on this website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google undertakes not to associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.
You can opt out of Google analytics cookies.
More information about cookies, including how to block them or delete them, can be found at AboutCookies.org (external website).
Cookies used by this website
Cookie name
- _ga
- _gat_gtag_UA_2781799_23
- _gid
Purpose
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. Read more on Google Analytics cookie usage on websites(external website)
Cookie name
- _NHS_NSS_
Purpose
This cookie saves the user's acknowledgement of the cookie message displayed at the bottom of the page. This means that the message will be hidden on subsequent visits to the site.