Privacy Notice

This privacy notice covers the following:

  • who we are and other important information
  • personal information we collect
  • how we collect personal information
  • how we use personal information
  • lawful basis for processing personal information
  • how to contact our Data Protection Officer
  • your rights
  • complaints
  • partner's privacy notices

What is FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot


The purpose of FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot is to provide a search facility for individuals or businesses seeking public sector business support across Scotland.

FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot is delivered by Scottish Enterprise on behalf of the FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot Partners. When we refer to “the Partners” in this privacy notice, we mean Scottish Enterprise and the FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot partners.

To provide the best services possible and ensure your enquiry is supported by the relevant Partner(s), your personal information may be shared with the Partners on a needs basis – this will depend on what kind of support you are seeking. You can find out more about how and why each Partner will use your personal information on each Partner’s privacy notice.

Contact details

For questions about FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot, you can:

For questions about this privacy notice, you can contact:

Data Protection and Information Governance Officer
Scottish Enterprise
Atrium Court
50 Waterloo Street
Glasgow
G2 6HQ

You can also contact us in the following ways:

  • email enquiries@scotent.co.uk
  • call 0300 013 3385 (calls charged at local rates)
  • call 0141 846 0200 from mobile phones or if outside Scotland

Or you can submit an enquiry using our enquiry form.

If you're deaf or hearing impaired you can use your textphone to contact us through Relay UK. Or, you can search for Relay UK in the App Store for iPhone or iPad and in Google Play for Android.

About this privacy notice

The privacy notice will tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you. It will also give you information on how the Partners and our suppliers (when we use these) collect, use, share and look after your personal information as part of FindBusinessSupport.gov.

Personal information means any information about an individual from which that individual can be identified.

Anything we do with your personal information (from the point at which we collect it until we delete it from our systems) is called processing.

FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot is not intended for children and the Partners do not knowingly collect personal information relating to children.

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notices or fair processing notice that may be provided to you on specific occasions, when we are collecting or processing personal information about you. This is so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your personal information. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

For the purpose of Data Protection Law, the data controller is SE for personal information submitted through FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot. Scottish Enterprise has appointed a data protection officer (this is our Data Protection and Information Governance Officer (DPIGO)) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to SE and this privacy notice.

If you have any questions about the privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights in respect of your personal information, please contact the DPIGO using the details above.

If you have any queries on how the Partners may use your personal information, please contact them using the details in their privacy notices.

This notice applies:

  • when you visit the website FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot
  • when you provide personal information through the website FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot
  • personal information collected in FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot

Personal information includes:

  • identity data - forename, surname
  • contact data - email address, phone number
  • technical data - internet protocol (IP) address, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, other technology on the devices you use to access the website and information about how you use the website
  • usage data - information about how you use our website, products and services

There is also other information that we collect, use, store and share that is not personal information, including:

  • aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal information, but is not considered personal information in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot on partner sites. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal information so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal information, which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
  • anonymised data which is the process of turning personal information into a form which does not identify individuals and where identification is not likely to take place.

How we collect personal information

Personal information will be collected directly from you when you use the website.

How your personal information is used within FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot

FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot website collects, uses, stores and shares personal information about you to:

  • reply to a query you have submitted through the website
  • let you know that your query has been signposted to one of the Partners
  • use you as a point of contact for any services or products you may have requested through the website

Technical data will also be automatically collected to track and monitor activity on FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot. Technical data is not identifiable data and will be gathered anonymously.

When your personal information is shared with one of the Partners, because this is what you have asked us to do by selecting a particular product or because you have made an enquiry that relates to that Partner, the relevant Partner’s privacy notice will apply to the processing of that personal information.

Lawful basis for processing personal information

Data Protection law says that we must have a legal ground to process your personal information. These are known as lawful grounds.

When you submit your personal information through, or where your activity is tracked on FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot, Scottish Enterprise will process that personal information in performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of our official authority for the purposes specified in this privacy notice.

Where your personal information is shared with a Partner, that Partner will have its own lawful basis for processing your personal information. You should refer to the relevant Partner’s privacy notice for further information.

How long your personal information will be kept for

FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot will retain any personal information collected through the website for 2 months. However, when your personal information is passed to a Partner, they may keep your personal information for a different period of time, depending on what services you have asked of them. You should refer to the Partner’s privacy notice to find out more on this.

Consequences of not providing personal information

The Partners require personal information to deliver, manage and monitor enquiries submitted through, and products requested through, FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot. If you do not accept the use of your personal information for these purposes, we will not be able to answer your query or signpost you to the best support for your company. However, you will still be able to access the website and the information contained within it.

Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. Where we use third party providers, we have ensured that they too have such appropriate security measures. In addition, our employees, agents, secondees and suppliers will only process personal information on our instructions, and in accordance with, this privacy notice. They are also subject to a duty of confidentiality.

International

Scottish Development International operates internationally. We may share your personal information with our SDI field offices. In some instances, this may involve transferring your personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA). We ensure that your personal information is protected by requiring all our SDI offices and staff to follow the same rules when processing your personal information.

To provide the best services possible on an international scale, we may also share your personal information with our third-party partners outside the European Economic Area.

Where your personal information is transferred outside the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • we will only transfer your personal information to countries that have been deemed to provide adequate level of protection for personal information by the European Commission
  • where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal information the same protection it has in Europe

Changes to our privacy notice

This is the current version of our privacy notice. It was last updated on 21 April 2023.

Your rights

You can exercise your rights for FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot and the personal information submitted directly through this site. Where you are signposted to a Partner, you should exercise your rights directly with that Partner.

Access to your information

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot holds in relation to FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot interactions.

Correcting your information

The Partners want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date. You may ask FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards. If you want to do this, email enquiries@findbusinesssupport.gov.scot.

Deletion of your information

You have the right to ask FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot to delete personal information about you where:

  • you consider that FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot no longer requires the information for the purposes for which it was obtained
  • you have validly objected to FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot use of your personal information (see Objecting to how we may use your information, below)
  • FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot’s use of your personal information is contrary to law or FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot’s other legal obligations

Objecting to how we may use your information

You have the right at any time to require FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot to stop using your personal information. In addition, where FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot uses your personal information to perform tasks carried out in the public interest or in exercising official authority vested in it then, if you ask it to, FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot will stop using that personal information unless there are overriding legitimate grounds to continue.

Restricting how we may use your information

In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information. This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information about you that we hold or assessing the validity of any objection you have made to FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot to use your information.

The right might also apply if FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot no longer have a basis for using your personal information, but you don't want FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot to delete the data. Where this right to validly exercised, FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.

Please send data subject requests to enquiries@findbusinesssupport.gov.scot.

The Partners have agreed all data subject requests, both verbal or written, submitted through FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot will be logged and recorded by SE. SE has processes in place to ensure we respond to a subject access request without undue delay and within one month of receipt. Data subject requests may also be logged by relevant Partners in accordance with their standard processes on protecting privacy.

Complaints

FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot seeks to resolve directly all complaints about how it handles personal information but you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office. Their contact details are as follows:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF


You can call them on 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745.

You can also visit the website of the Information Commissioner's Office for more information about how to make a complaint, external link which will open in a new window.