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Privacy
User anonymity and personal information on Health Scotland websites
Log files of all requests for files are maintained and analysed on the Health Scotland web servers. Log files do not capture personal information, but do capture the user's IP address which is automatically recognised by Health Scotland web servers. Aggregated analyses of these log files are used to monitor website usage. These analyses may be made available to Health Scotland staff and partner agencies to allow them to measure, for example, overall popularity of the site and typical user paths through the site.
Except as stated already, Health Scotland will make no attempt to identify individual users. You should be aware, however, that access to web pages will generally create log entries in the systems of your ISP or network services provider. These entities may be in a position to identify the client computer equipment used to access a page. Such monitoring would be done by the provider of network services and is beyond the responsibility or control of Health Scotland.
Health Scotland will make no attempt to track or identify individual users, except where there is a reasonable suspicion that unauthorised access to systems is being attempted. In the case of all users, Health Scotland reserves the right to attempt to identify and track any individual who is reasonably suspected of trying to gain unauthorised access to computer systems or resources operating as part of Health Scotland web services. As a condition of use of this site, all users must give permission for Health Scotland to use its access logs to attempt to track users who are reasonably suspected of gaining, or attempting to gain, unauthorised access.
All log file information collected by Health Scotland is kept secure and no access to raw log files is given to any third party.
Use of cookies
Health Scotland websites do not store any information that would, on its own, allow us to identify individual users of this service without their permission. Any cookies that may be used by Health Scotland websites are used either solely on a per session basis or to maintain user preferences.
When users enter an NHS Health Scotland website their computers will automatically be issued with 'cookies'. Cookies are text files which identify users' computers to NHS Health Scotland's servers. 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.
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.
Data protection and confidentiality
Some services on Health Scotland websites require us to collect personal information from you. To comply with the Data Protection Act and NHS confidentiality guidance, we have a duty to tell you how we store the information we collect and how it is used.