At Udacity (“Udacity”, “we”, “us”, “our”) we respect your privacy rights. We have created this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to explain how we treat the information collected and received from your use of our Services (as defined in our Terms of Use or “TOU”) provided through the website, http://www.udacity.com and any other websites or applications we own, operate, or control (the “Website(s)”). This Privacy Policy applies only to the Services, and we are not responsible for the practices of persons, companies, institutions or websites that Udacity does not control, manage, or employ. Capitalized terms not defined herein have the meanings set forth in the TOU.
Please read this Privacy Policy as well as our TOU carefully, as they govern your use of Udacity. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Services.
Udacity, Inc. is the data controller of your information. Please see the “Contact Information” section below for additional details. Please note that if you obtain access through Sponsored Services or our Employee and Enterprise Sponsored Access Services, the third-party sponsoring your participation in the Online Courses may provide us information subject to our agreement with them and therefore the third-party sponsor may be the controller with respect to such data.
Please understand that by submitting any information to us, you acknowledge that we may collect, use, disclose and retain such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our TOU, and as permitted or required by law. If you do not agree with these terms, then please do not provide any information to us. Udacity may offer social sharing features as part of its Services which, among other features, allows you to make your careers Profile (as described below in Profiles and Career Services Section) public as well as sharing your details and information, including your Online Course progress with others outside of the Udacity Website(s) (“Social Sharing”). By electing to participate in any of our Social Sharing Services, you acknowledge that any information or materials you include in your Profile can be viewed by other persons accessing the Website(s), including potential or existing employers, as well as by others on applicable third-party websites. You also acknowledge that information you share through Social Services may remain accessible on third party websites and/or to those you have shared the information with in the event you make your Profile private after having made it public and/or ceasing to share your information and that Udacity has no control over the access of or use of information provided to third parties via Social Sharing outside its Website(s).
We collect a variety of information that you provide directly to us. In general, we collect information from you through:
The types of data we collect directly from you include:
Participation in Online Courses. If you desire to participate in an Online Course, you will be asked to provide us with certain information necessary to conduct such an Online Course. This information may include, among other things, your name and email address. Udacity, or its third-party service providers, may also collect certain information from you in conjunction with assignments, exams and other assessments related to the Online Course. For example, as part of a proctored exam for an Online Course or to process your credential of completion for a Nanodegree program, Udacity (or its third party service providers, such as NetVerify) may collect certain information from you in order to (a) verify or authenticate your identity or submissions made by you, such as a signature for a test or assignment log, a photograph or recording of you (e.g., using a webcam) or information included on a government issued or other photo identification card or document, or (b) monitor your performance during an exam to confirm that you are abiding by the applicable test rules or requirements (e.g., confirming that you are not using prohibited resources). Udacity may also collect information from you or about your performance or accomplishments related to the course, such as quiz/exam scores, grades, project evaluations, teacher evaluations and other evaluations of your performance or accomplishments. Profiles and Career Services. You can choose to share additional information, such as your work experience, resume and transcript, your picture, and answers to questions about your experience, studies and work preferences, when you create a professional profile through the career services we offer through our Services. You can also share information by updating your Profile, uploading documents, or answering questions or surveys we email you or present to you through our Services. Collectively, the professional profile and the materials you provide through the career services are referred to as simply your “Profile.”
Please note, that by electing to make your Profile public, you acknowledge that:
When you use our Services, we and our service providers (which are third party companies that work on our behalf) may use cookies, and similar technologies to track, collect and aggregate certain information including, among other things, which pages of our Website(s) were visited, the order in which they were visited, when they were visited, the URLs from which you linked to our Website(s), and which hyperlinks were “clicked.” Collecting such information may involve logging the IP address, operating system and browser software used by each user of the Website. Through such information, we may be able to determine from an IP address a user’s Internet Service Provider and the general geographic location (city/state) of his or her point of connectivity.
We also use or may use these technologies to help us determine and identify repeat visitors, the type of content and sites to which a user of our Website(s) links, the length of time each user spends at any particular area of our Website(s), and the specific functionalities that users choose to use.
We use third-party web analytics services (such as those of Google Analytics) on our Website(s) to collect and analyze usage information through cookies and similar tools; engage in auditing, research, or reporting; assist with fraud prevention; and provide certain features to you. We also provide a limited amount of your information (such as your email address and sign-up date) to Intercom, Inc. (“Intercom”) so that Intercom can analyze Website usage on our behalf, which allows us to improve our Services. We may also use third-party services, (including Intercom), as a medium for communications, either through email, or through messages within our Service(s). The use of these any such medium may be subject to the terms and conditions and privacy policy for those service providers and you should carefully review those terms and conditions. For example, Intercom’s services are governed by terms of use which can be found at http://docs.intercom.io/terms and privacy policy http://docs.intercom.io/privacy. If you would like to opt out of having this information collected by or submitted to Intercom or have questions about other third-party service provider’s collection of your information for this purpose, please contact us. For more information about our use of cookies and similar technologies, including how you can install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to prevent Google from using your information for analytics, or otherwise control or disable cookies, please see our Cookies Policy.
We may allow third party companies, including advertising companies (such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Quora and Bing), to place cookies on our website. These cookies enable such companies to track your activity across various sites where they display ads and record your activities so they can show ads that they consider relevant to you as you browse the Internet. These Cookies store information about the content you are browsing together with an identifier linked to your device or IP address.
These Cookies also allow us and third parties to know whether you've seen an ad or a type of ad, and how long it has been since you've last seen it. This information is used for frequency capping purposes, to help tailor the ads you see, and to measure the effectiveness of ads. For more information about online advertising and how you can control or disable these cookies, please see our Cookies Policy.
Currently, we do not monitor or take any action with respect to Web browser signals or other mechanisms for the expression of choice regarding collection of information about an individual over time and across third-party web sites or online services (e.g., Web browser “do not track” signals).
If you log-in to, or connect to, a third-party network (e.g., through a social network), or log-in to our Services, through a social network site (e.g., Facebook), you may allow us to have access to and store certain information from your social network profile. This includes your name, gender, profile picture, depending on your settings on such services. If you do not wish to have this information shared, do not use a social networking connection to access the Services. For a description of how social networking sites handle your information, please refer to their privacy policies and terms of use, which may permit you to modify your privacy settings.
We may offer certain Users the opportunity to refer (Referrers) their friends (“Referees”) to the Site through a third-party referral program whereby both Referrers and Referees may obtain credits or other rewards through such referrals. To the extent we offer such programs, the Referrers may share information about the Referees, including email addresses for the purpose of sharing the referral offer. We may also share the Referrer’s email and name with the Referee as well as provide the Referrer the confirmation of the Referee’s acceptance of the referral which may include Referee’s email in connection with providing any such referral program.
We use your information for various purposes depending on the types of information we have collected from and about you and the specific services you use, in order to:
Combined Information. For the purposes discussed in this Privacy Policy, we may combine the information that we collect through the Services with information that we receive from other sources, both online and offline, and use such combined information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Aggregate/Anonymous Data We may aggregate and/or anonymize any information collected through the Website so that such information can no longer be linked to you or your device (“Aggregate/Anonymous Information”). We may use Aggregate/Anonymous Information for any purpose, including without limitation for research and marketing purposes, statistical analyses of Website(s) usage, and may also share such data with any third parties, including advertisers, promotional partners, and sponsors.
Udacity will share your information in the following ways:
You may have certain rights with respect to your information as further described in this section.
If you would like further information in relation to your legal rights under applicable law or would like to exercise any of them, please contact us using the information in the “Udacity Contact Information” section below at any time. Your local laws, such as in the European Union, may permit you to request that we:
We will consider all requests and provide our response within the time period stated by applicable law. Please note, however, that certain information may be exempt from such requests in some circumstances, which may include if we need to keep processing your information for our legitimate interests or to comply with a legal obligation.
To the extent that you make such a request, we require certain information to help verify your request and prevent fraudulent information and removal requests. Specifically, we ask that you provide the following pieces of information:
Depending on the circumstances and the information you request, we may require additional methods of verification in our discretion.
We provide our Users with the opportunity to update their information or to opt out of having their contact information used for purposes not directly related to payment or servicing of your account.
If you are a Student and wish to opt out of any of the communications offered by Udacity, you may do so at any time. Log into your account, select the Settings page, and navigate to 'Notification Preferences.' From there, you can manage Udacity communication subscriptions, including text message study reminders, mentor communications, Career Services support (if applicable), community notifications, and marketing and promotional communications by selecting or de-selecting any of the methods from which you wish to opt out or opt in. If you are not a Student, or wish to opt out through alternative means, you may opt out as follows:
Please identify the communication methods (e.g., phone, email, or SMS text message) by which you desire to stop receiving messages.
You may unsubscribe from our commercial or marketing email communications at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions located at the bottom of such emails. If you have opted in to receive marketing text message communications from Udacity, you can opt out of those messages by following the instructions in those messages or by contacting us at the information provided above.
Please note that, regardless of your request, we may still use and share certain information as permitted by this Privacy Policy or as required by applicable law. For example, you may not opt out of certain operational emails, such as those reflecting our relationship or transactions with you.
We keep your information for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which it is processed. The length of time for which we retain information depends on the purposes for which we collected and use it and/or as required to comply with applicable laws.
The Services contain links to third-party websites such as social media sites, and also contain third-party integrations (such as the Facebook “like” button, Slack/Github integration, or YouTube) and functionalities. If you choose to use these sites or features, you may disclose your information not just to those third-parties, but also to their users and the public more generally depending on how their services function. Udacity is not responsible for the content or practices of those websites or services. The collection, use, and disclosure of your information will be subject to the privacy policies of the third-party websites or services, and not this Privacy Policy. We urge you to read the privacy and security policies of these third-parties.
In the provision of the Services, Udacity utilizes YouTube API services. Such API service is maintained and operated by YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Avenue, San Bruno, CA 94066, United States, with YouTube, LLC being a subsidiary of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States. As a condition of accessing Udacity Services on YouTube, you warrant and represent that you have read and fully agree to the YouTube Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy as updated and amended from time to time.
Udacity is intended for general audiences and not for children under the age of 13. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected “personal information” (as defined by the United States Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) from children under the age of 13 without legally-valid parental consent, we will take reasonable steps to delete it as soon as possible. We also comply with other age restrictions and requirements in accordance with applicable local laws.
Udacity stores information about visitors to our Website and users on servers located in the United States. By using our services, you consent to the storage of your information inside the United States. If you are using the services from outside the United States and the European Union, please know the information you submit will be transferred to and stored in servers in the United States or other countries. The data protection and other laws of the United States and/or other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By submitting your data and/or using our services, you acknowledge the transfer, storing, and processing of your information in and to the United States.
As described above, Udacity also may subcontract the processing of your data to, or otherwise share your data with, service providers and others in countries other than your country of residence, including the United States, in accordance with applicable law. Such third parties may be engaged in, among other things, the provision of services to you, the processing of transactions and/or the provision of support services. By providing us with your information, you acknowledge any such transfer, storage or use.
If we provide any information about you to any such non-European Union entities, we will take appropriate measures to ensure such companies protect your information adequately in accordance with this Privacy Policy. These measures include signing Standard Contractual Clauses in accordance with European Union and other data protection laws to govern the transfers of such data. For more information about these transfer mechanisms, please contact us as detailed in the “Udacity Contact Information” section below.
If applicable, you may make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority in the country where you are based. Alternatively, you may seek a remedy through local courts if you believe your rights have been breached.
We consider the confidentiality and security of your information to be of the utmost importance. Udacity takes a variety of technical, administrative, and physical measures to protect your information from disclosure to or access by third parties. Please note that we do not guarantee the security of information, as no method of internet transmission or storage is completely secure. Also note that we may retain and store your information in our databases and systems even after your Udacity account is deactivated as long as we have a legitimate purpose to do so and in accordance with applicable law.
In addition to the information detailed in this privacy policy, California law provides for specific rights for California residents. California residents may request access to Personal Information, request a copy of their Personal Information, or request that their Personal Information be deleted. You may make these requests through your account by navigating to your Settings or by submitting a request to [email protected]. Consistent with California law and to provide for the security of Personal Information, Udacity will verify requests from California residents, as well as requests received from authorized agents acting on behalf of California residents.
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 Website(s). You can know if the Privacy Policy has changed since the last time you reviewed it by checking the “Effective Date” included at the beginning of the document. If we make a material change to the Policy, you will be provided with appropriate notice in accordance with legal requirements. By continuing to use the Services, you are confirming that you have read and understood the latest version of this Privacy Policy. Be sure to return to this page periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version of this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions, comments or complaints about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:
Email: [email protected]
Udacity, Inc.
Attn: Privacy
2440 W. El Camino Real, Suite 101
Mountain View, CA 94040
Udacity EMEA Holdings Ltd. Attn: Privacy 70 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin, Ireland D02R296 Udacity EMEA Holdings Ltd. has appointed Bird & Bird DPO Services SRL as a Data Protection Officer (DPO) and may be reached: