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Legal Notices & Social Media Guidance

Copyright © Aberdeenshire Council 2013

Intellectual Property rights in the material on this site belong to Aberdeenshire Council unless otherwise indicated.

The material may be downloaded to file or printer for private or non-commercial uses only. Any other proposed use of the material is subject to the approval of Aberdeenshire Council. Application should be made to webmaster@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.

Permission to reproduce copyright material on this site does not extend to any material identified as being the copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned.

Disclaimer

Whilst every effort is made to keep the information on this site accurate and up-to-date, Aberdeenshire Council shall not be liable for any loss of any kind whatsoever in consequence of the use of contents of this site.

None of the guidance contained within this website is intended to be legal advice. If you are unsure of your legal rights in connection with any matter you should obtain independent legal advice.

Social Media

Aberdeenshire Council uses a number of social media channels and online communities to interact with local residents and businesses including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The council wants to provide as many different methods of engagement as possible for residents. The development of social media is important in including a wider spectrum of people into conversations about Aberdeenshire.

Rules and guidelines

Pre-election publicity rules

In the six week run up to an election - local, general or European - councils have to very careful not to do or say anything that could seen in any way to support any political party or candidate. We will continue to publish important service announcements using social media but may have to remove responses if they are overtly party political.

Guidance

Users who interact with Aberdeenshire Council via social media should note that certain behaviour will not be accepted on any of the sites. Users are advised to adhere to the following guidance:

  • Be civil, tasteful and relevant.
  • Do not post messages that are unlawful, libellous, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially offensive.
  • Do not swear.
  • Do not post content copied from elsewhere, for which you do not own the copyright.
  • Do not post the same message, or very similar messages, more than once (also called "spamming").
  • Do not publicise your, or anyone else's, personal information, such as contact details.
  • Do not advertise products or services.
  • Do not impersonate someone else.

Libel

Please take care not to make libellous statements. In law this means a statement that lowers the reputation of a person or organisation in the eyes of a reasonable person. By publishing such a statement both the person who wrote it and the administrators of the platform it is posted on can get into serious trouble. We will therefore take down any statement that could be deemed to be libellous.

 

Links

Aberdeenshire Council is not responsible for the accuracy of material on linked sites, does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them, and does not guarantee that links to external sites will work at all times.

Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey maps, and maps created from Ordnance Survey material are subject to Crown copyright. They may be downloaded to file or printer for private or non-commercial uses only. The mapping may not be further exploited without prior written permission of Ordnance Survey. Ordnance Survey shall not be held liable for the Map Material not being fit for your purposes or applications. Further details can be found on the Ordnance Survey Website.

Data Protection and Privacy

Aberdeenshire Council supports the objectives and principles of the Data Protection Act 1998. No personal data is obtained from this site without your knowledge or permission. Any information which is voluntarily submitted, either by email or through online forms, will be:

  • processed fairly and lawfully;
  • obtained and processed only for lawful purposes;
  • adequate, relevant and not excessive;
  • accurate and, where necessary, kept up-to-date;
  • not kept for longer than is necessary;
  • processed with regard for the rights of the data subjects;
  • protected against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss or damage; and
  • transferred only to countries with similar regulations in force.

If you have any queries concerning your personal data at Aberdeenshire Council please email dataprotection@aberdeenshire.gov.uk or write to::

Data Protection Officer
Aberdeenshire Council
St Leonard's
Sandyhill Road
Banff
AB45 1BH

Further information is also available from the Information Commissioner's Office.

Subject Access Requests

Advice for members of the public enquiring about their rights under the Data Protection Act 1988 and / or requesting access to personal data held about them (i.e. making a Subject Access Request) :

 

Aberdeenshire Council's Data Protection Notification

 

Information Commissioners OfficeThis Information Commissioner's Office enables you to search the Aberdeenshire Council's Data Protection Register. Enter the reference number Z6501842 and click on the Search Register button.

Cookies

This website, along with most other major websites, use cookies. Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to the cookie file on your computer’s hard disk. Cookies enable users to navigate around the website and (where appropriate) enable us to tailor the content to fit the needs of visitors who have accessed the site.

Aberdeenshire Council uses two types of cookie on this website:

Session cookies, which are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your computer until you close your browser (at which point they are deleted).

Persistent or stored cookies that remain permanently on the cookie file of your computer.
Cookies cannot look into your computer and obtain information about you or your family or read any material kept on your hard drive and, unless you have logged onto an authenticated page, cookies cannot be used to identify who you are.

Cookies cannot be used by anyone else who has access to the computer to find out anything about you, other than the fact that someone using the computer has visited a certain website.

Cookies do not in any way compromise the security of your computer.

Cookies will not be used to contact you for marketing purposes.

Cookies may be used to record details of pages relating to Council services that you have visited on this website. This is to provide Aberdeenshire Council with generic usage statistics to allow the company to improve this website and to provide you with information that may interest you.

In order to develop this website in line with customer needs Aberdeenshire Council is working with Google to track usage on this website. Google Analytics provide statistics to show which pages on this website are visited most frequently and how long visitors spend on this website.

Google Analytics uses a cookie to track the number of unique users of this website. It basically tells Aberdeenshire Council whether the website has a small number of regular visitors or a large number of infrequent visitors. None of the information can be traced to an individual - Aberdeenshire Council do not know who you are as a unique user, merely that there are a certain number of people using this website. The cookie only relates to what goes on in this website and the information cannot be used for marketing on an individual basis.

The web browsers of most computers are initially set up to accept cookies. If you prefer, you can set your web browser to disable cookies or to inform you when a website is attempting to add a cookie. You can also delete cookies that have previously been added to your computer’s cookie file.

You can set your browser to disable persistent cookies and/or session cookies but if you disable session cookies, although you will be able to view this website’s unsecured pages, you may not be able to log onto any authenticated pages.

Please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/ to discover how to disable and delete cookies.

Credits

This website is produced by Aberdeenshire Council's eGovernment Team who are part of the Personnel & ICT Service.

The overall design was produced in conjunction with Reading Room Ltd

The search engine used is Ultraseek supplied by Q Associates.

Photographs are reproduced with kind permission from Aberdeenshire Council Photography department and eGovernment resources. If you would like to purchase an Aberdeenshire owned photograph please contact webmaster@aberdeenshire.gov.uk