Privacy policy

This is the general privacy notice for all Park Authority services and is a broad description of the way we process personal information. We will use your details to provide you with the service(s) which you or someone else (with your consent) have asked us to provide. We will also use your personal details for purposes of crime prevention and crime detection and/or when required by law and will share it with other public bodies for that purpose.

To understand how your own personal information is processed, you may need to refer to any personal communications you have received, check any specific privacy notices we have provided or contact us to ask about your personal circumstances.

In terms of data protection legislation, the Park Authority is the data controller of any personal information provided to or gathered by us, and is registered with the Information Commissioner (registration ZB497989).

Our basis for processing information

We may rely on different legal bases for processing personal information, depending on the circumstances.

We process personal information to enable us to promote our goods and services, to maintain our accounts and records, to support and manage our staff and volunteers, and to guide and set the direction for the National Park.

As a planning authority, personal information is processed for the consideration of planning applications and for the enforcement and monitoring of planning developments. As a statutory access authority we will also process personal information related to our duties under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.  In these cases we are carrying out a public task.

One basis is legitimate interest, which means we can process your personal information if:

• We have a genuine and legitimate reason
• We are not harming any of your rights and interests

The following are some examples of when and why we would use this approach in our work: market research, direct marketing or consultation and engagement activities. When we process your personal information for our legitimate interests, we will consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights under data protection and any other relevant law. Our legitimate business interests do not automatically override your interests.

For most purposes, we will only process your information with your consent. In most cases, we understand that by providing us with your details in order to obtain a service from the Park Authority you are consenting to us using those details in order to provide that service to you. Except as set out in this privacy statement, we will not use your personal details for any other purpose without first obtaining your consent to that other purpose or purposes (you may have been asked to provide this additional consent at the time when you originally contacted us, for example in an additional section on an application or other form).

We retain personal data relative to the purpose for which it was gathered, in accordance with the time periods for retention set out in our record retention schedule. Our retention schedule is maintained in accordance with the Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011. Specific details on the use and retention of your personal data will be provided at the point we collect your data and you may contact us at any time if you have any queries about your rights as an individual in terms of how we are processing your data.

External contractors who are appointed to process information on behalf of the Park Authority will do so under our instructions. All contractors which do this are appointed under written contracts requiring them to keep personal information safe and prohibiting them from doing anything with the personal data they process for us other than following the Park Authority’s instructions.

Emailing

When you send us an email we may use your email address to thank you for your comment and/or reply to your enquiry, and we will store your communication and our reply for any future correspondence in accordance with our data retention policy. Beyond our initial reply, we will never use your email address to send you any unsolicited message or information you have not consented to receive, nor will we share it with or sell it to anyone else for such use.

When you agree to receive information about our services, promotions, newsletters, press releases, and/or offers, we use your email address and any other information you give us to provide you with the information or other services, until you ask us to stop (using the ‘unsubscribe’ instructions provided with each email communication and/or on the site where you signed up, and/or as we otherwise provide), or until the information or service is no longer available.

Your rights under data protection legislation

You have a number of rights under data protection legislation in regards to how your data is processed in addition to the provision of information in this notice. These are set out in detail by the Information Commissioner : A guide to individual rights | ICO

You also have the right to request information we hold about you. This is known as a subject access request. Learn more on our freedom of information page.

Website privacy notice

This section sets out specific privacy information related to our website.

Our websites do not automatically capture or store personal information, other than logging the user’s IP address and session info such as the duration of the visit and the type of browser used. These are only used for system administration and to provide statistics which the Park Authority uses to evaluate use of our site(s).  See also our cookie policy. If you are aged 12 or under, please ask your parent or guardian’s permission before you provide personal information on any of our websites.

Content accuracy on our websites

The information provided on our websites is believed to be accurate at the time of writing, but the Park Authority accepts no liability for the contents and anyone relying on these contents does so at their own risk. Nothing on our websites is to be construed as binding the Park Authority or constituting an offer on behalf of the Park Authority.

Scope of policies

This privacy policy only covers the Park Authority website at www.cairngorms.co.uk (and the other websites operated or managed by us where they link back to this privacy policy). Links within this site to other websites are not covered by this policy and individuals should check the terms of the privacy policy of those other sites for their terms. The Park Authority is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram etc.)

Communication, engagement and actions taken through external social media platforms that we utilise, and users participate on, are bound to the terms and conditions, and the privacy policies held with each social media platform respectively.

Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate / engage upon them with due care and caution in regard to their own privacy and personal details. We will never ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms, and encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact us through our standard primary communication channels, such as by telephone or in writing.

Our website may use social plugins which help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform in question. Users are advised before using such social plugins we utilise that they do so at their own discretion and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account.

Cookie policy

We use cookies to make this website better for you and others to use and will never use them to personally identify you.

Why do we use cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.

What cookies do we use on our site?

We use necessary cookies to make our website work (for example, to save your cookie preference). We’d also like to use some non-essential cookies (including third-party cookies) to help us improve the site. By clicking ‘Accept all’ on our cookie banner, you accept our use of non-essential cookies.

Your choice regarding cookies

When you visit cairngorms.co.uk you can set your cookie preference to accept all cookies or just necessary cookies. This preference will be saved in an essential cookie so that you don’t have to keep setting your preference. Non-essential cookies will only be set on your computer if you accept them in the cookie banner.

You can adjust the settings in your web browser to determine whether sites can set cookies on your computer. If you’ve visited this website before, there may be previously-set cookies on your computer. You can find out how to delete them from the sites listed below.

• Cookie settings in Firefox
• Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
• Cookie settings in Google Chrome
• Cookie settings in Safari (OS X)
• Cookie settings in Safari (iOS)
• Cookie settings in Android

Why do we use tracking cookies?

We use tracking cookies for Google Analytics which allow us to anonymously monitor how you use the site so that we can constantly improve the usability of the site. We don’t collect any personal data about you.

View an overview of privacy at Google here