Cookie / Privacy Policy

NHS Forth Valley fully respects your right to privacy when using our website.  On this page you will find details of our privacy practices in connection with this website and what we do to maintain your right to privacy.  We recognise the importance of the correct and lawful processing of personal data in maintaining confidence in our operations and we fully endorse and adhere to the principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act).

The Data Protection Act 1998

The Data Protection Act 1998 came into force on 1 March 2000. It set rules for processing personal information and applies to structured paper records as well as data held on computers.  With the introduction of The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 on 1 January 2005, the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 applies to all records, including those structured other than by reference to the data subject, and completely unstructured files for public bodies such as the NHS.    

How does the Data Protection Act affect NHS Forth Valley?

The Data Protection Act states that those who record and process personal information must be open about how the information is used and must follow the eight principles of good information handling.  These principles state that data must be:

• Fairly and lawfully processed
• Processed for limited purposes
• Adequate, relevant and not excessive
• Accurate
• Not kept for longer than is necessary
• Processed in line with your rights
• Secure, and
• Not transferred to countries without adequate protection.

By law, data controllers have to keep to these principles.

If you believe in any way that NHS Forth Valley is not processing your personal data in accordance with these principles, please contact the NHS Forth Valley at the address listed on the contacts page.
How does NHS Forth Valley collect data?

There are several means by which NHS Forth Valley collects personally identifiable data, for example:

• Through registering on the website
• Acceptance for inclusion on a mailing list or database
• As a result of you interacting with NHS Forth Valley (e.g. by entering into email or telephone correspondence with an employee of NHS Forth Valley)

All personally identifiable information provided to NHS Forth Valley is processed in accordance with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Is information passed to third parties?

It is NHS Forth Valley's policy to only disclose information to third parties if explicitly required to do so by United Kingdom Law.

NHS Forth Valley will obtain your consent before passing on any information to any third parties.

NHS Forth Valley does not collect or compile personally identifying information for dissemination or sale to external parties for marketing purposes or host mailings on behalf of third parties.

Privacy and Data Protection Policy
 
User Anonymity & Personal Information on the NHS Forth Valley Website

Log files are maintained and analysed of all requests for files on the NHS Forth Valley web servers. Aggregated analyses of these log files are used to monitor website usage. These analyses are made available to NHS Forth Valley participating organisations to allow them to measure, for example, overall popularity of the site and typical user paths through the site.

In combination with other information which is not collected by NHS Forth Valley but which may be collected by suppliers of network services, it may in certain situations be possible to identify an individual user's use of the NHS Forth Valley website. NHS Forth Valley does not collect the additional information required and will make no attempt to track or identify individual users, except where explicit consent for this is given or where there is a reasonable suspicion that unauthorised access to systems is being attempted. In the case of all users, NHS Forth Valley 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 the NHS Forth Valley service. As a condition of use of this site, all users must give permission for NHS Forth Valley 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 NHS Forth Valley is kept secure and no access to raw log files is given to any third party.

In certain cases, a NHS Forth Valley participating website may implement a registration scheme which will allow usage to be tracked. NHS Forth Valley policies do not permit this to be done except in cases where users have given informed consent for this to be done and offending sites will be removed should NHS Forth Valley become aware of any breaches of this policy. NHS Forth Valley will endeavour to ensure that participating organisations have proper data-protection procedures in place in respect of the information they make available through their websites.    

Use of Cookies

NHS Forth Valley does 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 NHS Forth Valley are used either solely on a per session basis or to maintain user preferences. Cookies are not shared with any third parties.

User tracking

Except as stated already, NHS Forth Valley 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 outwith the responsibility or control of NHS Forth Valley.

Surveys

From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys.  Participation in these surveys 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 they may not use users personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Notification of Changes

If NHS Forth Valley decides to change its privacy policy, it will display those changes to this privacy statement on the Web site for 30 days, so our users are always aware of what information is collected, how it is used and under what circumstances, if any, it is disclosed.

If users personally identifiable information is going to be used in a different manner from that stated at the time of collection, NHS Forth Valley will notify users via email or by posting a notice on the Web site for 30 days.

Contact Information

If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:

Phone: 01786 457252
Email: fv-uhb.webmaster@nhs.net