Cookie policy

When someone visits our site we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site.

We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website.

We will not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifying information from any source. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be transparent. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Use of cookies by Homes for Scotland:

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. The following explains the cookies we use and why:

Google Analytics
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. Click here for an overview of privacy at Google.

Twitter
The social plug-ins for Twitter, in our pages may also set or retrieve cookies on your machine, if you are logged in to these websites, or have previously downloaded cookies controlled by these sites.

Functional

This is a session cookie used to carry over users' information and which enables a visitor's web browser to remember which pages on this website have already been visited.

The technical details logged are confined to the following items:

• the IP address of the visitor's web server
• the top-level domain name used (for example .ie, .com, .org, .net)
• the previous website address from which the visitor reached us, including any search terms used
• click stream data which shows the traffic of visitors around this web site (eg pages accessed and documents downloaded)
• the type of web browser used by the website visitor

Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you arrive at our site.  Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We will make no attempt to identify individual visitors, or to associate the technical details listed above with any individual. It is our policy to never disclose such technical information in respect of individual website visitors to any third party (apart from our internet service provider, which records such data on our behalf and which is bound by confidentiality provisions in this regard), unless obliged to disclose such information by a rule of law. The technical information will be used only by us, and only for statistical and other administrative purposes. You should note that technical details, which we cannot associate with any identifiable individual, do not constitute "personal data" for the purposes of the Data Protection Acts, 1988 & 2003.

Click here to read our full privacy policy.

Glossary of technical terms used

Web browser:  The piece of software you use to read web pages. Examples are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

IP address:  The identifying details for your computer (or your internet company’s computer), expressed in "internet protocol" code (for example 192.168.72.34). Every computer connected to the web has a unique IP address, although the address may not be the same every time a connection is made.

Cookies:  Small pieces of information, stored in simple text files, placed on your computer by a web site. Cookies can be read by the web site on your subsequent visits. The information stored in a cookie may relate to your browsing habits on the web page, or a unique identification number so that the web site can "remember" you on your return visit. Generally speaking, cookies do not contain personal information from which you can be identified, unless you have furnished such information to the website.