Cookie policy
FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot is delivered by Scottish Enterprise and Partners.
This website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of this website. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.
Cookies help the delivery partners of findbusinessupport.gov.uk to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allow us to improve our website. We assume that you are happy to receive all the cookies that your browser settings allow. You can change your cookie settings at any time.
We use the following cookies:
- Strictly necessary cookies - These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website.
- Analytical / performance cookies - They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in this table:
| Cookie name | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
Azure webservices |
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| ARRAffinity | This cookie is set by websites run on the Windows Azure cloud platform. It is used for load balancing to make sure the visitor page requests are routed to the same server in any browsing session. The main purpose of this cookie is: Strictly Necessary | When the browsing session ends |
Google Analytics |
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| _ga | This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. Examples of purposes for which a cookie may be used: Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | Expires after 2 years |
| _gat | Used to limit the collection of analytics data on high traffic websites. | Expires after 1 minute |
| _gid | This cookie is used to distinguish unique users. | Expires when the browser is closed. |
Other |
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| betaClosed | If you dismiss our beta banner we store this information so that the banner is not displayed if you return to the website. | Expires after 30 days |
| cookiesAccepted | If you dismiss our cookies banner we store this information so that the banner is not displayed if you return to the website. | Expires after 90 days |
| bioep_shown | If you dismiss our email newsletter pop-up we store this information so that the pop-up is not shown to you again. | Expires after 30 days |
Hotjar |
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| _hjClosedSurveyInvites | Set once a visitor interacts with a Survey invitation modal popup. It is used to ensure that the same invite does not re-appear if it has already been shown. | 365 days |
| _hjDonePolls | Set once a visitor completes a poll using the Feedback Poll widget. It is used to ensure that the same poll does not re-appear if it has already been filled in. | 365 days |
| _hjMinimizedPolls |
Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor minimizes a Feedback Poll widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimizes when the visitor navigates through your site. | 365 days |
| _hjDoneTestersWidgets | Set once a visitor submits their information in the Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the same form does not re-appear if it has already been filled in. | 365 days |
| _hjIncludedInSample | This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate funnels. | 365 days |
| _hjShownFeedbackMessage | Set when a visitor minimizes or completes Incoming Feedback. This is done so that the Incoming Feedback will load as minimized immediately if they navigate to another page where it is set to show. | 365 days |
| _hjid | Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behaviour in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. | 365 days |
| _hjRecordingLastActivity | This should be found in sessionStorage (as opposed to cookies). This gets updated when a visitor recording starts and when data is sent through the WebSocket (the visitor performs an action that Hotjar records). | Session |
| hjTLDTest | When the script executes Hotjar tries to determine the most generic cookie path they should use, instead of the page hostname. This is done so that cookies can be shared across subdomains (where applicable). To determine this, Hotjar try to store the _hjTLDTest cookie for different URL substring alternatives until it fails. After this check, the cookie is removed. | Session |
| _hjUserAttributesHash | User Attributes sent through the Hotjar Identify API are cached for the duration of the session in order to know when an attribute has changed and needs to be updated. | Session |
| _hjCachedUserAttributes | Stores User Attributes which are sent through the Hotjar Identify API, whenever the user is not in the sample. These attributes will only be saved if the user interacts with a Hotjar Feedback tool. | Session |
| _hjLocalStorageTest | Used to check if the Hotjar Tracking Script can use local storage. If it can, a value of 1 is set in this cookie. The data stored in_hjLocalStorageTest has no expiration time, but it is deleted immediately after creating it so the expected storage time is under 100ms. | N/A |
| _hjptid | Set for logged in users of Hotjar, who have Admin Team Member permissions. It is used during pricing experiments to show the Admin consistent pricing across the site. | Session |
This website will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by this, or any third party websites, you can do this through your browser settings. The Help function within your browser should tell you how.
Alternatively, you may wish to visit the About cookies, external link which will open in a new window website, which contains comprehensive information about cookies and how to restrict or delete cookies on a wide variety of browsers
Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of the website.
This and our other websites use a number of suppliers who set cookies on our behalf in order to deliver the services that they are providing. We are constantly reviewing our use of cookies and, as such, this cookies policy will be regularly renewed to include up to date information about the cookies used by our suppliers. We would highly recommend that you check this page on a regular basis.