Effective: January 1, 2022.
The purpose of this Privacy Notice is to describe how Coursera, Inc., our subsidiaries, and our international branches, ("Coursera," "us," "we," or "our") collects, uses, and shares information about you through our online interfaces (e.g., websites and mobile applications) owned and controlled by us, including but not limited to coursera.org and rhyme.com (collectively referred to herein as the "Site"). Please read this Privacy Notice carefully to understand what we do. If you do not understand any aspects of our Privacy Notice, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]. Your use of our Site is also governed by our Terms of Use..Terms used but not defined in this Privacy Notice can be found in our Terms of Use. Coursera, Inc. is a Delaware corporation with a principal place of business at 381 E. Evelyn Ave., Mountain View, CA 94041. If you reside or are located in the European Economic Area ("EEA") Coursera is the data controller of all Personal Data (as defined below) collected via the Site and of certain Personal Data collected from third parties, as set out in this Privacy Notice unless you are part of a degree, certain MasterTrack programs, or certain other circumstances as communicated to you, in which case Coursera is the data processor.
This Privacy Notice covers information we collect from you through our Site. Some of our Site’s functionality can be used without revealing any Personal Data, but for features or Services related to the Content Offerings, Personal Data is required. In order to access certain features and benefits on our Site, you may need to submit, or we may collect, "Personal Data" (i.e., information that can be used to identify you and which may also be referred to as “personally identifiable information” or “personal information”). Personal Data can include information such as your name, email address, IP address, and device identifier, among other things. You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the Personal Data you submit to Coursera. Inaccurate information may affect your ability to use the Site, the information you receive when using the Site, and our ability to contact you. For example, your email address should be kept current because that is one of the primary manners in which we communicate with you.
We consider that the legal bases for using your personal information as set out in this Privacy Notice are as follows:
Which legal basis applies to a specific activity will depend on the type of personal information used and the context in which it is being used.
If we rely on our (or another party’s) legitimate interests for using your personal information, we will undertake a balancing test to ensure that our (or the other party’s) legitimate interests are not outweighed by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms which require protection of the personal information.
We may process your personal information in some cases for marketing purposes on the basis of your consent (which you may withdraw at any time as described below).
If we rely on your consent for us to use your personal information in a particular way, but you later change your mind, you may withdraw your consent by visiting your profile page and clicking the box to remove consent and we will stop doing so. If you withdraw your consent, this may impact the ability for us to provide some of our Services to you.
We gather the following types of information about users through the Site:
Information relating to your use of our Site. When users come to our Site, we may track, collect, and aggregate information indicating, among other things, which pages of our Site were visited, the order in which they were visited, when they were visited, and which hyperlinks were clicked. We also collect information from the URLs from which you linked to our Site. Collecting such information may involve logging the IP address, operating system, and browser software used by each user of the Site. We may be able to determine from an IP address a user’s Internet Service Provider and the geographic location of their point of connectivity. Location data may be used to route your traffic to the nearest regional server to reduce latency and improve your experience. We may also use cookies and web beacons when you visit our Site. For more information on our use of cookies and web beacons, please refer to our Cookies Policy.
Account Registration. If you register for an account on our Site, you may be required to provide us with certain Personal Data such as your name and email address. You may also voluntarily provide us with additional Personal Data.
If you participate in a Content Offering, we may collect certain user-generated content, such as assignments you submit, peer-graded assignments, and peer grading feedback. We also collect course data, such as responses to in-video quizzes, standalone quizzes, exams, and surveys. You should not include any Personal Data or other information of a personal or sensitive nature, whether relating to you or another person, on assignments, exams, or surveys, except for information required to participate in or submit such assignments, exams, or surveys.
Providing the Site and our Services. We use Personal Data which you provide to us in order to allow you to access and use the Site and in order to provide any information, products, or Services that you request from us.
Technical support and security. We may use Personal Data to provide technical support to you, where required, and to ensure the security of our Services and the Site.
Updates. We use Personal Data collected when you sign-up for our various email or update services to send you the messages in connection with the Site or Content Offerings. We may also archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you, where we are legally entitled to do so.
Forums. You should not post any personally identifiable information or other information of a personal or sensitive nature, whether relating to you or another person, within a Forum post. If you choose to post personally identifiable information, such personally identifiable information may be collected during your use of the Forums. We may publish this information via extensions of our platform that use third-party services, like mobile applications. We reserve the right to reuse Forum posts that contain personally identifiable information in future versions of the Content Offerings, and to enhance future Content Offerings. We may archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you and/or your designee(s), and/or provide it to the Content Provider, business partners, or the instructor(s) associated with the courses you have taken. We may also use or publish posts submitted on the Forums without using personally identifiable information.
Participation in Content Offerings. We use the Personal Data that we collect from you when you participate in a Content Offering through the Site for processing purposes, including but not limited to tracking attendance, progress, and completion of the Content Offerings. We may also share your Personal Data and your performance in a given Content Offering with the instructor or instructors who taught it, with teaching assistants or other individuals designated by the instructor or instructors to assist with the creation, modification, or operation of the Content Offering, and with the Content Provider(s) with which they are affiliated. We may also use the information generated when taking a Content Offering or using the Services for predictive analysis of your performance in the Content Offerings. Also, we may archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you, where we are legally entitled to do so.
Identity Verification. For Services that require identity verification, we may use the Personal Data that we collect for verifying your identity, and for authenticating that submissions made on the Site were made by you. This service may be provided through a third-party identity verification vendor. Your photo identification document will be deleted after successful verification of your profile information.
Communications with or from Coursera. When you send us an email message or otherwise contact us, we may use the information provided by you to respond to your communication and/or as described in this Privacy Notice. We may also archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you where we are legally entitled to do so. Where we send you emails, we may track the way that you interact with these emails (such as when you open an email or click on a link inside an email). We use this information for the purposes of optimizing and better tailoring our communications to you.
Communications with Coursera Business Partners. We may share your Personal Data with Content Providers and other business partners of Coursera so that Content Providers and other business partners may share information about their products and services that may be of interest to you where they are legally entitled to do so.
Research. We may share general course data (including quiz or assignment submissions, grades, and forum discussions), information about your activity on our Site, and demographic data from surveys operated by us with our Content Providers and other business partners so that our Content Providers and other business partners may use the data for research related to online education.
Disclosure to Coursera Operations and Maintenance Contractors. We use various service providers, vendors, and contractors (collectively, "Contractors") to assist us in providing our Services to you. Our Contractors may have limited access to your Personal Data in the course of providing their products or services to us, so that we in turn can provide our Services to you. These Contractors may include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, and/or content related to the operation and maintenance of the Site or the Content Offerings. Access to your Personal Data by these Contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary for the Contractor to perform its limited function for us.
Government Authorities; Legal Rights and Actions. Coursera may share your Personal Data with various government authorities in response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal processes; to establish or exercise our legal rights or to protect our property; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases we reserve the right to raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us. We also may share your Personal Data when we believe it is appropriate to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities; to protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of Coursera, the Site, our users, customers, or others; and in connection with our Terms of Use and other agreements.
Disclosure to Acquirers. Coursera may disclose and/or transfer your Personal Data to an acquirer, assignee or other successor entity in connection with a sale, merger, or reorganization of all or substantially all of the equity, business, or assets of Coursera to which your Personal Data relates.
For your convenience we may provide links to sites operated by organizations other than Coursera ("Third Party Sites") that we believe may be of interest to you. We do not disclose your Personal Data to these Third Party Sites unless we have a lawful basis on which to do so. We do not endorse and are not responsible for the privacy practices of these Third Party Sites. If you choose to click on a link to one of these Third Party Sites, you should review the privacy policy posted on the other site to understand how that Third Party Site collects and uses your Personal Data.
We keep your Personal Data for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which the Personal Data is collected and processed. The length of time we retain Personal Data for depends on the purposes for which we collect and use it and/or as required to comply with applicable laws and to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights.
We will use industry standard physical, technical, and administrative security measures to keep your Personal Data confidential and secure, and will not share it with third parties, except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Notice, or unless such disclosure is necessary in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others, as permitted by applicable law. Because the Internet is not a 100% secure environment, we cannot guarantee the security of Personal Data, and there is some risk that an unauthorized third party may find a way to circumvent our security systems or that transmission of your information over the Internet will be intercepted. It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login information. Please note that e-mail communications are typically not encrypted and should not be considered secure.
You have certain rights in relation to your Personal Data. You can access your Personal Data and confirm that it remains correct and up-to-date, choose whether or not you wish to receive material from us or some of our partners, and request that we delete or provide you with a copy of your personal data by logging into the Site, selecting ‘Settings’ from the dropdown in the top right, and scrolling down to find the appropriate option. The ability to delete an account may be disabled for some users, particularly those who are enrolled in for-credit offerings such as degrees, MasterTrack certificate programs, and other similar offerings.
If you would like further information in relation to your rights or would like to exercise any of them, you may also contact us via [email protected]. If you reside or are located in the EEA, United Kingdom, Switzerland, or other region that offers similar protections, you have the right to request that we:
We try to answer every request promptly where possible, and provide our response within the time period stated by applicable law. Keep in mind, however, that when deleting your Personal Data there may be residual information that will remain within our databases, access logs, and other records, which may or may not contain your Personal Data. Please also note that certain Personal Data may be exempt from such requests in certain circumstances, which may include if we need to retain your Personal Data to comply with a legal obligation. When you email us with a request, we may ask that you provide us with information necessary to confirm your identity.
If you are a resident of California, please also see our CCPA Notice.
If you have any privacy-related questions, suggestions, unresolved problems, or complaints, you may contact us via [email protected]. If you reside or are located in the EEA, United Kingdom, Switzerland, or other region that offers similar protections, our Data Protection Officer and Privacy Team may assist with all queries regarding our handling of Personal Data at [email protected]. If you reside or are located in the EEA, United Kingdom, Switzerland, or other region that offers similar protections, you may also make a complaint to our supervisory body for data protection matters (namely the UK Information Commissioner's Office or Dutch Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) or seek a remedy through local courts if you believe that your rights have been breached.
Coursera BV serves as the EU Representative for Coursera, Inc. To contact Coursera BV, please use the following contact info:
Post: Coursera Europe B.V.
Attn: Privacy Request
Schiphol Boulevard 195, 1118BG Schiphol
Email: [email protected]Coursera UK Limited serves as the EU Representative for Coursera, Inc. To contact Coursera UK Limited, please use the following contact info:
Post: Coursera UK Limited
Attn: Privacy Request
City Bridge House, 57 Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU
Phone: +44 20 3457 0256
Email: [email protected]Shine the Light Under California’s "Shine the Light" law, California residents who provide personal information in obtaining products or services for personal, family, or household use are entitled to request and obtain from us, once a calendar year, information about the customer information we shared, if any, with other businesses for their own direct marketing uses. If applicable, this information would include the categories of customer information and the names and addresses of those businesses with which we shared customer information for the immediately prior calendar year (e.g. requests made in 2018 will receive information regarding 2017 sharing activities).
To obtain this information, please send an email message to [email protected] with "Request for California Privacy Information" on the subject line and in the body of your message. We will provide the requested information to you at your email address in response. Please be aware that not all information sharing is covered by the "Shine the Light" requirements and only information on covered sharing will be included in our response.
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), California residents have the right to know what personal information about them is collected, request deletion of their personal data, opt-out of the sale of their personal data, and not be discriminated against if they choose to exercise any of these rights. Coursera does not sell any of the data we collect about you. If you’d like to exercise any of the other rights afforded to you, log in to your Coursera account, select ‘Settings’ from the dropdown in the top right, and scroll down to find the appropriate option, or contact us at [email protected].
For more information about how we process the personal information of California residents and the rights that California residents have under the CCPA, please review our full CCPA Notice here.
Our Sites are primarily operated and managed on servers located and operated within the United States. In order to provide our products and Services to you, you may be sending your Personal Data outside of the country where you reside or are located, including to the United States. Accordingly, if you reside or are located outside of the United States, your Personal Data may be transferred outside of the country where you reside or are located, including to countries that may not or do not provide the same level of protection for your Personal Data. We are committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of Personal Data when it is transferred. If you reside or are located within the EEA, United Kingdom, Switzerland, or other region that offers similar protections, and such transfers occur, we take appropriate steps to provide the same level of protection for the processing carried out in any such countries as you would have within the EEA or other regions to the extent feasible under applicable law. We participate in and commit to adhering to the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks when transferring data from the EEA or Switzerland to the United States. Please see our Privacy Shield Notice below for further information.
Please note that we review our privacy practices from time to time, and that these practices are subject to change. Any change, update, or modification will be effective immediately upon posting on our Site. We will notify you of any material change to this Privacy Notice by posting a notice on our Site’s homepage for a reasonable period of time following such update or by sending an email to the email address associated with your user account, and by changing the effective date (located at the top and bottom of this page). Be sure to return to this page periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version of this Privacy Notice.
Coursera strongly believes in protecting the privacy of children. Any use or access by anyone under the age of 13 is prohibited, and certain regions and Content Offerings may have additional requirements and/or restrictions. In line with this belief, we do not knowingly collect or maintain Personal Data on our Site from persons under 13 years of age, and no part of our Site is directed to persons under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use or access this Site at any time or in any manner. We will take appropriate steps to delete any Personal Data of persons less than 13 years of age that has been collected on our Site without verified parental consent upon learning of the existence of such Personal Data.
This section explains how Coursera collects and uses the Personal Data of those who use our Live2Coursera Services, and supplements but does not replace our Privacy Notice, which governs how we handle the Personal Data of all Coursera users. The Terms of Use for Live2Coursera can be found here. Any defined terms used in this section and not otherwise defined in the Privacy Notice are found in the Live2Coursera Terms of Use.
Live2Coursera enables instructors to record, share, and upload lectures, including those recorded using Third Party Offerings, to Coursera for their students to view on the students’ mobile devices or computers. In addition to the activities outlined elsewhere in our Privacy Notice, Live2Coursera users are directed to review the following:
If you have any questions about how we handle your information, please contact us at [email protected].
Effective as of January 1, 2022.
Coursera, Inc. (referred to as "we," "us," or "our"), believes in protecting your privacy.
We participate in and commit to adhering to the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks which includes the Privacy Shield Principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, and enforcement (the "Principles") for all transfers of personal data from the EEA, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom to the U.S. To learn more about Privacy Shield, please visit the U.S. Department of Commerce Privacy Shield website: https://www.privacyshield.gov/. For more information regarding our Privacy Shield certification, please click here. When we use the term "Personal Information" in this Privacy Shield Notice, we are referring to any information that (i) is recorded in any form; (ii) is about an identified or identifiable individual; and (iii) is received by us from the EEA, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom.
When we use the term "Sensitive Personal Information" in this Privacy Shield Notice, we are referring to a particular subset of an individual’s Personal Information that provides details of his or her race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership or that concerns his or her health.
The purpose of this Privacy Shield Notice is to outline our general practices for implementing the Principles with respect to the Personal Information we collect. If you would like to obtain additional information regarding our privacy practices in connection with information collected on this website in general, please refer to our online Privacy Notice.
Notice. We will provide you with timely and appropriate notice in our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice, describing what Personal Information we are collecting, how we will use that information, and the types of third parties with whom we may share such information (and the reasons we do so). Please review these documents carefully. Where we process personal data on behalf of our business partners, we will work with them to help them provide appropriate notice to you.
Where we process personal data on behalf of our business partners, we will work with them to ensure you are offered appropriate choices (and means to exercise those choices) for limiting use or disclosure of your personal data (where appropriate).
Notwithstanding the foregoing, you agree that we may disclose Personal Information under the following circumstances without offering you an opportunity to opt out of such disclosure: (i) to our Content Providers and other service providers that we have retained to perform requested Services on our behalf; (ii) if we are required to do so by law or legal process; (iii) pursuant to valid requests by law enforcement or other government authorities (which we are legally required to respond to); and (iv) when we believe disclosure is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity. In addition, we reserve the right to transfer Personal Information in the event we sell or transfer all or a portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a reorganization, dissolution, or liquidation). Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to direct the transferee to use the Personal Information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Shield Notice.
Where we have knowledge that a third party to whom we have provided Personal Information is processing that Personal Information in a manner contrary to this Privacy Shield Notice or the Principles, we will take reasonable steps to prevent or terminate processing by the third party until such time the third party can process Personal Information in compliance with this Privacy Shield Notice and the Principles. Under certain circumstances, we may be potentially liable if these requirements are not met.
Data Security. We will take reasonable and appropriate measures to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. We have implemented appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to help safeguard and secure Personal Information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
Data Integrity and Purpose Limitation. We will process Personal Information in a manner that is compatible with and relevant to the purpose for which it was collected or authorized by you. To the extent necessary for those purposes, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that Personal Information is accurate, complete, current, and reliable for its intended use.
Access. Upon request, we will provide you with reasonable access to the Personal Information about you that we hold. We will also take reasonable steps to correct, update, amend, or delete any information that is demonstrated to be inaccurate, except where the burden or expense of doing so would be disproportionate to the risks to your privacy in the case in question or where the rights of third parties would be violated. Where we process personal data on behalf of our business partners, we will work with them in complying with such requests in accordance with applicable law.
Recourse; Enforcement. We will regularly review our compliance with the statements set forth in this Privacy Shield Notice, and we will provide an independent way to resolve complaints about our privacy practices. We encourage interested persons to first contact us (contact information provided below) and we will investigate and attempt to resolve any complaints and disputes regarding use and disclosure of Personal Information in accordance with the Principles. If your inquiry is not satisfactorily addressed by us, we have registered with the International Centre for Dispute Resolution ("ICDR"), a division of the American Arbitration Association, to provide independent third party dispute resolution (free of charge) to you. To contact ICDR and/or learn more about the company’s dispute resolution services, including complaint submission, please visit: http://go.adr.org/privacyshield.html. There may also be circumstances when disputes can be resolved through the Privacy Shield binding arbitration process. Please see the Privacy Shield website for further information. For residents of Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner’s authority will replace that of the EU bodies. For residents of the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner’s Office will serve this role.
We may amend this Privacy Shield Notice from time-to-time in accordance with the requirements of the EU-U.S. or Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. The most recent version of the Privacy Shield Notice will always be posted to this website. Anytime that we do make such changes, we will also update the effective date listed at the top of the Privacy Shield Notice. Please be sure to review the most recent version of the Privacy Shield Notice each time that you visit this website so that you are aware of how we collect, use, and retain personal information.