This privacy policy tells you what to expect when the Scottish Government collects your personal information.
Why we collect personal data
We gather this information in order to:
- improve the site by monitoring how you use it
- respond to any feedback you send us, if you’ve asked us to
- send out email alerts to those who have requested them
- record and/or publish your response to a survey or consultation
- publish your comment on a blog or discussion site
The personal data you send us can be viewed by authorised people in the Scottish government, supplier organisations, agencies and public bodies.
Data we collect
1. Visitors to our websites
We use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect information on how you use the site, using cookies and page tagging techniques.
The information we – and Google – collect doesn’t identify anyone, and is kept for a maximum of 38 months. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through the site, we will be up front about it.
2. Email alerts
We collect your email address, name and subscription preferences when you sign up to our email alerts. We also track how our emails are used – for example whether you open them and which links you click on.
If you’ve signed up for email alerts, you can unsubscribe or change your settings at any time by selecting the ‘unsubscribe’ link that appears in every email.
Once you have unsubscribed, your details will be deleted immediately from the system.
3. Feedback
If you contact us asking a question or giving feedback, we collect your email address and any other personal data contained in your message. If you contact us asking for information, we may need to contact other government bodies to find that information.
4. Consultations
We collect names and email addresses with every response we receive through our consultation platform http://consult.gov.scot.
Email addresses are used to send an acknowledgement of response following submission. They may also be used to contact you in the future in relation to the consultation exercise if you give consent to be contacted.
Where permission is given, we publish responses. We include personal data where permission has been given to do so. We never publish email or postal addresses.
5. Blogs and discussion sites
We collect names or usernames, and email addresses with each comment. This data is kept as long as the blog post or dialogue remains published.
Links to other websites
When we link to other websites, we encourage you to read the privacy policy statements contained on those sites.
Your rights
You have a right of access to any personal data we hold about you, by making a Subject Access Request (SAR).
In addition, if you believe that the data we hold is inaccurate or incomplete you can ask us to update our records. If you are unhappy with the way in which we process your personal data you can request that we stop or restrict the processing we complete using your personal data or ask us to delete the personal data we hold about you.
Find out more about your rights on the Information Commissioner’s site.
In some circumstances we may not be able to comply with your request. This is because some of these rights are conditional and can only be applied in certain circumstances and/or where there is no compelling reason to continue to process your personal data.
Contact
Data Protection Officer
Victoria Quay
Commercial Street
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ
Email: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.scot
Complaints
If you feel we have been unable, or unwilling, to resolve your information rights concern, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO are the supervisory authority responsible for data protection in the UK.
For further information, including independent data protection advice and information in relation to your rights, you can contact the Information Commissioner at:
The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 08456 30 60 60
Website: www.ico.org.uk
You can also report any concerns here: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/