Terms & Conditions
Disclaimer and Terms & Conditions of use and access of the HI-Net (Grampian Health Improvement Network) Website
Any information appearing on HI-Net is issued as general information and does not constitute a warranty by any health organisation, nor should it be taken as advice. No responsibility can be accepted by HI-Net administration, NHS Grampian or any other organisation for action or inaction as a result of information contained on the HI-Net website. Readers should take specific advice in respect of specific situations.
The use and access of pages of the HI-Net website is subject to the terms and conditions set out below and by the disclaimer above. By using or accessing this website, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.
Copyright
Content on this website is copyright © of NHS Grampian and partner organisations unless otherwise stated. Where NHS Grampian and partner organisations copyright applies, visitors can download material for private research, study or in-house use only. Visitors must not copy, distribute, or publish any material from this website. Any other use of NHS Grampian or partner organisations copyright material requires written permission.
Links to other Websites
The provision on the HI-Net website of a link to another website does not constitute any authorisation to access material held at that location. Links to sites are provided for informational purposes only and no responsibility is accepted for the quality of resources to be found on such websites. The contents and material made available on linked sites are completely outwith our control, and as such no liability is accepted for any damages resulting from accessing or failing to access these sites. No endorsement is expressed or implied by the presence of a link on the HI-Net website. The contents of a linked-to website may change without our knowledge and as a result, links may break or may terminate on pages that were not the original targets of a link. No responsibility or liability for the privacy of personal information is accepted for linked to websites, as these are beyond our control.
Warranties
The resources contained on the HI-Net website, including all files that are authorised for public and password-protected download or access, are provided on an “as is” basis and without any warranties. Although files are virus checked these cannot guarantee that files are free from computer viruses and no warranty is given that files downloaded or accessed from the HI-Net Website are free of computer viruses. No warranties are made as to fitness for purpose, quality or completeness of information. HI-Net excludes any liability for any errors in or omissions in information provided on or linked to from this website.
Reliability of information
HI-Net administration uses its best efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of information on the HI-Net website in accordance with the policies defined for HI-Net. However, no guarantees are made that the information contained on HI-Net, or linked to websites, is accurate, complete and current at any given time. Information presented on the HI-Net website may be changed at any time. The resources made available on the HI-Net website are intended to assist to users find information on health improvement and are for information only. The HI-Net website is not intended in any way to replace the advice of your doctor or health professional. Nothing on this website is intended to constitute advice to you. Specific advice should be sought in specific situations from a properly qualified health worker. Content on the HI-Net website is governed by a number of policies and guidelines set by HI-Net administration. Users of the HI-Net website agree to inform HI-Net administration if they should come across any material contained on the site that they consider to be potentially in breach of any relevant legislation in order for the appropriate remedial action to be taken.
Availability of the HI-Net website
Although the HI-Net website has been tested and should work correctly under normal circumstances, there are many factors both within and outside of the control of HI-Net administration that may prevent the website from being available to users of the world-wide-web. No responsibility is accepted by HI-Net administration for any losses that may arise from an inability to access resources on this site. Where a user finds a specific error in the coding of a web page, or where he/she considers a page to be in breach of accessibility, it is a condition of use of this site that HI-Net administration be notified in order that appropriate action may be taken.
Governing laws
The terms and conditions of use of the HI-Net website shall be governed by the laws of Scotland.
Privacy and Data Protection Policy
User Anonymity & Personal Information on the HI-Net Website
Log files are maintained and analysed of all requests for files on the NHS Grampian servers. Aggregated analyses of these log files are used to monitor website usage. These analyses are made available to NHS Grampian participating organisations to allow them to measure, for example, overall popularity of the site and typical user paths through the site.
In combination with other information which is not collected by NHS Grampian but which may be collected by suppliers of network services, it may in certain situations be possible to identify an individual user’s use of the HI-Net website. NHS Grampian does not collect the additional information required and will make no attempt to track or identify individual users, except where explicit consent for this is given or where there is a reasonable suspicion that unauthorised access to systems is being attempted. In the case of all users, NHS Grampian reserves the right to attempt to identify and track any individual who is reasonably suspected of trying to gain unauthorised access to computer systems or resources operating as part of the NHS Grampian service. As a condition of use of this site, all users must give permission for NHS Grampian to use its access logs to attempt to track users who are reasonably suspected of gaining or attempting to gain unauthorised access.
All log file information collected by NHS Grampian is kept secure and no access to raw log files is given to any third party.
The HI-Net website operates a registration scheme, this allows the website to remain a professionally focused site, and gives credibility to the information contained on the site. While anyone can view the site, only registered users can contribute information to the site and view certain areas of the site which are protected. We collect the information necessary to provide the service, which includes, as a minimum, your full name, job title, email address, department, organisation, telephone number, line manager/tutor. NHS Grampian is the data controller in terms of the Data Protection Act. Once registered, you can revisit your profile at to amend or correct any details and have to option to withdraw from the registration scheme at any time.
In the case where a user is registered and logged in, users may be identifiable to others using the site when they post to the Discussion Fora. Their details will also appear in the list of members, which is only available to registered members.
Information may be automatically collected about the usage of the site by registered users who can be tracked by HI-Net administration, but this information is only used by HI-Net administration and for statistical and evaluation purposes only. All information will remain strictly confidential, users will not be identified in any statistics or evaluation reports, and no information will be passed to any third parties.
Non-registered users of the system are anonymous and no attempt is made to identify them as individuals. However, information is collected through the use of cookies on the site that allow NHS Grampian to determine how the site is used. This is done to allow changes to be made to the site to reflect the needs of the users community. Data collected through cookies is never used by us to identify individual users.
Use of Cookies
A cookie is a small data file that certain websites write to your hard drive when you visit them. This site uses different types of cookie.
We use Google Analytics, a popular web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics uses cookies to help us to analyse how users use the site.
The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google undertakes not to associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.
If you want to delete any cookies that are already on your computer, please refer to the instructions for your file management software to locate the file or directory that stores cookies. You can access them through some types of browser. Search in your cookie folders for HI-Net to find our cookie and the Google Analytics cookie if you wish to delete them.
We use Google analytics data sharing settings to prevent Google from using or sharing our analytics data.
More information about cookies, including how to block them or delete them, can be found at AboutCookies.org.
Visitors can use this website with no loss of functionality if cookies are disabled from the web browser.
Cookies used by this website
This list shows all cookies used by the HI-Net website, and what each is used for.
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Expiry |
| _pk_id | This cookie determines if you are a new or returning visitor. | This cookie is valid for 2 years. |
| _utma | This cookie determines which pages you have visited on HI-Net | The cookie is only valid for a single visit |
| _utmb | This cookie is used in conjuncton with _utma to calculate how long you spend on this website. | The cookie is valid for 30 minutes at a time. |
| _utmc | This cookie is used to identify if you close your browser during a session. | The cookie is only valid for a single visit |
| _utmt | This cookie determines which pages you have visited on HI-Net | The cookie is only valid for a single visit |
| _utmz | This cookie tracks how you came to the website by holding the address of the referring website or search engine. | The cookie is only valid for 6 months from when set. |
| PHPSESSID | This is a simple token used by PHP applications to identify your unique session on the website. Typically used to maintain the integrity of your session while transacting information with a website (accessing secure areas, forms submissions etc) | At end of session |
| Cookies which may be set during logged in sessions | ||
| wordpress_logged_in_id | Tracks whether a user is logged in | At end of session |
User tracking
Except as already stated, HI-Net will make no attempt to identify individual users. You should be aware, however, that access to web pages will generally create log entries in the systems of your ISP or network services provider. These entities may be in a position to identify the client computer equipment used to access a page. Such monitoring would be done by the provider of network services and is outwith the responsibility or control of HI-Net administration.