Privacy Statement

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Privacy Policy

Any personal data or sensitive personal data provided by you to us will be held and processed in accordance with the data protection principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998 for the purposes of meeting the legitimate interests of Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Ministers, the Scottish Government and other members of the Scottish Enterprise Network.

Privacy statement

This Privacy Policy explains our data processing practices and only applies to this website. Other websites to which this website links are not covered by this Privacy Policy. If you have any queries concerning your personal information or any questions on our use of the information, please email globalscot@scotent.co.uk.

At Scottish Enterprise we are committed to protecting the privacy of our customers and website visitors. Our relationship with you is valuable and we understand the importance you place on the privacy and security of information which personally identifies you. In that respect, and whether you are a first time visitor to our website or a regular user, we take your privacy seriously. Please read the following in order to learn more about our privacy policy and our information gathering and dissemination practices.

Why we require your information

• When you register as a member of our website we will collect personal information from you which is necessary to provide the service, through the use of enquiry and registration forms. We may also collect information automatically about your visit to our site. The information obtained automatically by us, which includes demographic data and appraising patterns, is only used in aggregate form.

What information do we collect?

We will collect information from you in the following circumstances:

        Registration

• Some areas of our website require you to be registered with us prior to access being made available to a particular area of the website or to obtain certain services. Our registration process involves providing us with your name, address, telephone, Business Sectors and Employment/Company details and e-mail address.
• When you become a registered member of our website you will be consulted about the extent to which your details can be included on this web site which is being set up to facilitate contact and networking amongst members of the GlobalScot community. Personal data or sensitive personal data about you may be held and processed for other purposes only where you have given your explicit consent.

        Promotions and Events

• Personal data is required to keep you informed of developments including new (or existing) activities, guidance services and facilities, promotions, conferences, seminars and training offerings. Where we offer on-line registration in particular cases, we will require to obtain certain information about you such as contact details and billing information to process your registration and to follow-up such registration.

        Free Software Download

• When you download software from us we may request your contact information to process your order.

        Subscriptions and Newsletters

• Users of our website can register for a number of e-mail newsletters and news updates. This service is entirely optional and you may unsubscribe at any time by emailing globalscot@scotent.co.uk

        Contest and Surveys

• From time to time we may offer users the option of participating in contests or surveys. Participation is entirely optional. Any information you provide during the course of a contest or survey is used by us to conduct research, improve our facilities and services or award prizes. Additional terms and conditions may apply to contests which will be notified to prospective applicants.

        Discussion Forums

• Some users of our website are offered the opportunity of participating in discussion forums and posting news, comments and other content to message boards. These services are only accessible within the secure area of the website.

       Cookies

• There are various technologies, including one called "cookies" which can be used to provide you with tailored information from a website. A cookie is a small data file that certain websites write to your hard drive when you visit them. The only personal information a cookie can obtain is information a user supplies him or herself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Cookies, however, enhance our website performance in a number of ways, including providing a secure way for us to verify your identity during your visit to our website and personalising your experience on our site making it more convenient for you. The Scottish Enterprise website uses cookies so that we can serve you better. For example, we set cookies to maintain the open menus as you move between pages, or to remember user names and preferences (if applicable). These are used only when you are on the website. You can refuse cookies by turning them off on your web browser and you do not need to have cookies turned on to successfully use our service. Most browsers are defaulted to accept and maintain cookies, and you can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it or not.

        Use of Web Beacons

• Scottish Enterprise web pages may contain electronic images known as web beacons - sometimes called "single-pixel gifs" - which allows Scottish Enterprise to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. Web beacons are not used to access your personally identifiable information on the Scottish Enterprise website. They are a technique we use to compile aggregated statistics about Scottish Enterprise website usage. Web beacons collect only a limited set of information including a cookie number, time and date of a page view and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides. Web beacons work in conjunction with cookies. If you don't want to associate your anonymous cookie information with your visits to these pages, you can set your browser to turn off cookies. If you turn off cookies, web beacon technologies will still detect anonymous visits to these pages, but the notices they generate cannot be associated with other anonymous cookie information and are disregarded.

       Website Usage Data

• With or without cookies, our website keeps track of usage data, such as the source address that the page request is coming from (i.e. your IP address, domain name), date and time of the page request, the referring website (if any) and other parameters in the URL (for example search criteria). We use this data to better understand website usage so we know what areas of our website users prefer. This information is stored in log files and is used for aggregated and statistical reporting but is not attributed to you as an individual.

        Security

• We recognise industry standards and employ security safeguards to protect information from unauthorised access and misuse. We use the most accurate and current information you provide in order to process your request. Furthermore, whenever you transmit sensitive information, such as billing or credit card information to us through our website, we provide you access to our secure server that allows encryption across the internet. This is done to help protect you from unauthorised use of the information you are sending to our server.

What information do we share?

There are times when we are required to share the information we learn from you with other parties. We do not sell or rent this information to others but will send personally identifiable information about you to other companies or people in the following situations:-

        Compliance with law

• We will release personal information where we are required to by law or by the regulations and other rules (including auditing requirements) to which we are subject. We may also exchange information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

        Consent

• Other than in the above situation you will receive notice from us when your personal information might go to third parties and you will have the opportunity to decide not to share that information.

        Changes to Privacy Policy

• We may edit this policy from time to time. If we make any substantial changes we will notify you by posting a prominent announcement on our web pages.

       Questions or suggestions

• If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this policy, have any concerns about the practices of our websites, you believe we are not properly adhering to our privacy policy or wish us to remove your personal details from our database, please email globalscot@scotent.co.uk

Your Rights

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information held by us in our records in return for which we may charge a small fee. You also have the right to require us to correct any inaccuracies in your information. For further information please contact us at globalscot@scotent.co.uk.