1 This Privacy Notice

1.1 Historic Environment Scotland is committed to protecting your personal data and your privacy.

1.2 This Privacy Notice applies to visitors using ourtrove.scot website (the “Website”) or individuals who contact us by telephone, email or other means (including other electronic means).

1.3 This Privacy Notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, or that we acquire from a third party, will be processed by us.Please read the following notice carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

1.4 Before we process your personal data, we are obliged to inform you of who we are, why we need to process your personal data, what we will do with your personal data and to whom we will pass your personal data.

1.5 It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

1.6 We amend this Privacy Notice from time to time. Every time you wish to use the Website, please check the Privacy Notice to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time.

1.7 This version of our Privacy Notice was last updated on 23 July 2024.

1.8 Please see our mainPrivacy Notice for further details.

2 Who we are

2.1Who we are. “trove.scot” is a brand ofHistoric Environment Scotland. Historic Environment Scotland is an executive non-departmental public body, incorporated and established under the Historic Environment Scotland Act 2014, being a registered charity (Scottish Charity number SC045925) and having our principal office at Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh, EH9 1SH. Our registered VAT number is GB221868015.

In this Privacy Notice, “we” and “us” means Historic Environment Scotland.

2.2 We are a data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 and related data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) as it applies in the United Kingdom ("UK GDPR") and related data protection legislation.

2.3How to contact us. Our contact details are below.

3 The data we collect about you

3.1 Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity of the individual has been removed (anonymous data).

3.2 We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

3.2.1 Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.

3.2.2 Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.

3.2.3 Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access the Website.

3.2.4 Usage Data includes information about how you use the Website including which products you view and search terms.

3.2.5 Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

4 How is your personal data collected?

4.1 We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

4.1.1Direct interactions. You may give us your personal data when you correspond with us by post, phone, email or otherwise, such as when you fill in a form. This includes personal data you provide when you:

4.1.1.1 contact us;

4.1.1.2 approach us about our records and data;

4.1.1.3 request marketing to be sent to you;

4.1.1.4 provide us with feedback; or

4.1.1.5 enter a competition, promotion or survey.

4.1.2Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with the Website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, and other similar technologies.

4.1.3Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources, for example Identity and Contact Data from publicly availably sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the EU.

5 How we use your personal data

5.1 We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

5.1.1 Where it is necessary:

5.1.1.1 for us to carry out a specific task in the public interest which is laid down by law; or

5.1.1.2 for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

5.1.2 Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

5.2 Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data. In some specific circumstances for example, in relation to sending direct marketing communications to you via email, text message or social media, we will look to gain your consent. We describe below how we use social media to keep you informed about our work and events at our sites.

6 Purposes for which we will use your personal data

6.1 We have set out below a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so.

6.2 Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the tables below.

General visitors to the Website and Social Media: 

Please see our separateCookie Policy for further information.

When you sign up to a newsletter or to other direct marketing through the Website or via social media:

Where you contact us via the Website:

7 How long do we retain your data for?

7.1 We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

7.2 To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, and the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data. We also consider the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

8 Marketing

8.1 We will only use your personal data for direct marketing purposes where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us or by unsubscribing where there is an option to do so. We use trusted third party media agencies to help us with our advertising, but we do not share your personal details with any third party for their marketing purposes. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us using the details above.

8.2 Where you have signed up to receive e-newsletters from us, we may use your postcode to email relevant localised content. You can unsubscribe from our emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email.

8.3 If you receive marketing from us on social media platforms you are able to withdraw your consent by adjusting your privacy settings on the social media platform itself. You may see our adverts if your settings allow for targeted advertising based on attributes of your social media profile, such as your location, age and interests. For example, you may see an advert for a publication that might be of interest to you. You may also see our advertising as a result of your information being automatically profiled by the social media platform and your being selected as part of the audience for the advert. You can prevent this type of targeting by adjusting your privacy settings in the social media site or by adjusting your cookie settings in the browser. You can also interact with the advert itself and select the options that prevent further targeted advertising using your information in this way.

9 Compliance with legal obligations, etc

9.1 We may process (including disclose) your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligations binding on us, to protect the rights, property, or safety of our staff, our customers, or others, and to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.

9.2 When we process your personal data for the above purposes, we do so on the basis that such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject or necessary in order to protect the vital interests of a natural person, respectively or necessary in order to pursue our legitimate interests in exercising our legal rights.

10 International data transfers

10.1 When you use the Website, your personal data will be processed by us in the United Kingdom and on our behalf by our data processors. If you are resident in the UK or in any European Economic Area (EEA) country, we endeavour to ensure that your personal data remains within the UK and/or the EEA, however for technical reasons our data processors may use sub-processors who are located outside of the UK or the EEA, in particular in Canada and the United States of America. Where we permit our processors to transfer your personal data outside of the UK or the EEA, we require that such transfers comply with the requirements of the UK GDPR (for personal data being transferred outside of the UK) and the GDPR (for personal data being transferred outside of the EEA). This includes using EU approved sub-contractual clauses within the data processor contract.

11 Data Security

11.1 We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know.

11.2 We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

12 Your rights

12.1 Your personal data is protected by legal rights, which include:

12.1.1 Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

12.1.2 Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

12.1.3 Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

12.1.4 Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes.

12.1.5 Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

12.1.6 Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

12.1.7 Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

12.2 If you want to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details above.

12.3 You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

12.4 We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us at using the details above. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

12.5 You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, which regulates the processing of personal data, about how we are processing your personal data.

13 Automatic Decision-making

13.1 We do not use automated decision-making.

14 How to contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or our data protection policies generally, please contact us:

by post: 

The Data Protection Officer
Historic Environment Scotland
Room G.50
Longmore House
Salisbury Place
Edinburgh, EH9 1SH

by email:

dataprotection@hes.scot

by phone:

0131 668 8600 
Monday to Thursday, 9am–5pm and Friday, 9am–4.30pm (except public holidays)

We aim to acknowledge emails in accordance with our service standards.What to expect when you contact us.