2. coursera.org
“Coursera is an education company that
partners with the top universities and
organizations in the world to offer courses online
for anyone to take, for free” (Coursera
Inc, 2013).
3. “PLEASE READ THIS TERMS OF
USE AGREEMENT……………..”
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
I have read the Terms of Use
I agree
4. “PLEASE READ THIS TERMS OF
USE AGREEMENT……………..”
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
I have read the Terms of Use
I agree
Yes, we‟ve all done it – it would take way too
long to read and analyse that 20 page document
and all we want to do is sign up and get started!
5. So the purpose of this policy primer is to introduce
you to Coursera‟s Terms of Use & Privacy Policy…
This analysis will help you understand what you are
agreeing to when you sign up to a Coursera User
Account.
The User Account gives you access to Coursera
course content, forums and related Sites (which will
be referred to as Coursera or Sites).
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
6. The focus is on your personal information and
your privacy:
You will also learn how your personal information
(which you add to the site) will or can be used by
Coursera Inc.
7. User Account
When signing up for a „User Account‟ you will be
asked to provide
Your real name
Your email address
Your location
(Coursera Inc, 2013).
8. In addition (when you sign up to certain courses) Coursera may
ask for further Personally Identifiable Information (Coursera
Inc, 2013) to confirm your identity, such as:
Address
Headshot taken using a webcam
Photo identification document
Sample of your typing patterns
This information is not compulsory but if you choose to provide it
– please read „what may happen to your personal data‟ (slide
No. 21 of this slideshow).
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
9. This section of the Terms of Use is not specific and
could be asking for anything: “you may be
prompted or required to enter additional
information, including but not limited to your name
and location” (Coursera Inc, 2013).
You are really agreeing to enter any personal
information that Coursera asks for, regarding your
identity to continue to use the Sites and you agree
to keep that information up-to-date at all
times, otherwise Coursera reserves “the right to
terminate your use of the Sites” (Coursera
Inc, 2013).
10. Think carefully…
It‟s up to you to decide how much is too much
information to give any organisation.
Why should we be concerned about our
privacy?
11. What we think is anonymous or
non-personal information may not
be…
An example of how so called anonymous data from AOL
User No. 4417749 (Barbaro & Zeller, 2006) was
collected and later provided for research purposes. This
data was analysed and traced back to Thelma Arnold
(Barbaro & Zeller, 2006) who was shocked to find out
that she had been traced using her search data
(Barbaro & Zeller, 2006). AOL later said “it was an
unauthorized move by a team that had hoped it would
benefit academic researchers” (Barbaro & Zeller, 2006).
Introna (1997) explains we don‟t have control over “the
decontextualising and recontextualising of the data
obtained and subsequent judgment thereof…”
(Introna, 1997, p.263-264).
12. Privacy is important…
For example if a person signs up to do the
course “Drugs and the Brain” (Coursera
Inc, 2013b),
this course covers “the neuroscience of drugs for
therapy, for prevention, and for recreation. Drug
addiction and drug abuse” Coursera
Inc, 2013b)…
Could a person be judged in some way for
doing this course?
14. What personal data is
collected?
Coursera collects your data and divides it into
two categories:
Non Personal Information
Personally Identifiable Information
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
15. Examples of Non Personal
Information which is collected…
Records which webpages you visit and in which
order, number of visits and time on webpages
How you arrived on the webpage
Which hyperlinks you clicked on
Records your IP address (the policy does point
out that Internet Service Provider and location can
be obtained from your IP address)
Records your operating system and browser
software
Coursera installs cookies on your computer to
track this information
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
16. You will be surprised how much data about you
that cookies can collect “detailing every stop a
person makes on the Web” (Brown &
Muchira, 2004, p.66)
17. You can change your computer‟s setting to block
cookies but allow session cookies which is
recommended by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (2006)
OR
You can delete the cookies from your computer
from time to time
18. Examples of Personally Identifiable
Information which is collected…
Your real name
Location
Email address
Email messages
Any information which you post on the site
(eg. in forums) may be personally
identifiable, as it is accompanied by your real
name
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
19. Another example of your personal
data being collected…
Coursera explains that they may gain access
to Personally Identifiable Information when you
access or log-in to a third party site such as
Facebook from Coursera. This information
could contain text and images of “Personally
Identifiable information available from the third
party site” (Coursera Inc, 2013).
20. This is important…
This is an important area which needs to be
taken notice of…
Make the conscious decision – If you log in to
Facebook from the Coursera Sites (or any other
sites for that matter) Do you want Facebook to
share your profile picture and possibly other
information depending on your Facebook
Privacy settings?
YES/NO
If the answer is „no‟, then do not log in to
Facebook from other websites.
21. Now this is what may happen to
your personal data…
22. Non personal information…
Non-Personal Information creates databases
of account users‟ behaviour and demographics
for statistical analyses
Coursera states that they may use it for other
business purposes
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
23. Non personal information…
“Records of your participation” (Coursera
Inc, 2013) may be used for research purposes
but will not be personally identifiable (Coursera
Inc, 2013)
…don‟t forget about AOL User No. 4417749
(Barbaro & Zeller, 2006)
24. Non personal information…
Information collected through use of the
forums can be published and Coursera may
“reuse Forum posts containing Personally
Identifiable Information…for the purpose of
enhancing future course offerings” without
including identifiable information (Coursera
Inc, 2013).
25. If you post any images or text to
the public forums…
“you grant Coursera and the Participating
Institutions a fully
transferable, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free
and non-exclusive license to
use, distribute, sublicense, reproduce, modify, ad
apt, publicly perform and publicly display such
User Content” (Coursera Inc, 2013).
Which basically means that Coursera can do
almost anything they want with any of your
images or text.
28. Coursera may share your
Personally Identifiable Information
with:
With various government authorities in
response to subpoenas, court orders, or other
legal process” (Coursera Inc, 2013)
“…Operations and maintenance contractors
may have limited access to your personally
identifiable information in the course of
providing products or services [to Coursera]”
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
to an acquirer or someone buying the
business (Coursera Inc, 2013)
29. No guarantees for your
information
“Please note that we do not guarantee the
security of Personally Identifiable
Information, 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” (Coursera
Inc, 2013)
30. Archiving and Storage of your
Personal Information
You may contact Coursera if you wish to
delete your account but you must bear in mind
“that there will be residual information that will
remain within our databases, access logs and
other records, which may or may not contain
your Personally Identifiable Information”
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
So the reality is that (at least some of) your
personal information may remain in their
database FOREVER!
31. …a few more things you need to
know…
When using the Coursera Sites, don‟t break the
law…
Don‟t defame or harass people
Don‟t use the forums for illegal activities or to
promote commercial or political causes
Don‟t try to hack the system
Follow the “Honor Code” (Coursera Inc, 2013)
and don‟t cheat or give the answers to other
people and don‟t try to unfairly improve your
results
33. And if you do break the rules…
“any dispute arising out of or relating to these
Terms of Use…” “…will be governed by the
laws of the State of California, excluding its
conflicts of law provisions” Coursera
Inc, 2013). It also explains that disputes will be
dealt with in a Californian court.
34. …and don‟t forget…
Coursera may change their Terms of Use and
Privacy Policy at any time and they may or
may not be able to contact you…to let you
know but they will publish the changes on their
website… so just keep on checking!
(Coursera Inc, 2013)
35. References
Barbaro, M., & Zeller, T. (2006). A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749.
New York Times. Retrieved from http://w2.eff.org/Privacy/AOL/exhibit_d.pdf
Brown, M., & Muchira, R. (2004). Investigating the Relationship between Internet
Privacy Concern and Online Purchase Behavior. Journal of Electronic Commerce
Research, (591), 62-70. Retrieved from
http://www.csulb.edu/web/journals/jecr/issues/20041/Paper6.pdf
Coursera Inc. (2013). Terms of Use. Retrieved from
https://www.coursera.org/#about/terms/privacypolicy
Coursera Inc. (2013b). Drugs & the Brain. Coursera Course provided by California
Institute of Technology. Retrieved from
https://www.coursera.org/#course/drugsandbrain
Electronic Frontier Foundation (2006). Six Tips to Protect Your Search Privacy.
Retrieved from http://www.eff.org/wp/six-tips-protect-your-search-privacy.
Introna, L. D. (1997). Privacy and the computer: why we need privacy in the
information society. Metaphilosophy, 28(3), 259-275. Retrieved from
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/doi/10.1111/1467-9973.00055/pdf
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