net 303 policy primer

35
COURSERA TERMS OF USE & PRIVACY POLICY NET 303 Policy Primer Jennifer Jones

Upload: jenjay4

Post on 25-Jan-2015

204 views

Category:

Technology


0 download

DESCRIPTION

Net303 Student Assignment exploring the Terms of Use

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Net 303 policy primer

COURSERATERMS OF USE & PRIVACY POLICY

NET 303 Policy PrimerJennifer Jones

Page 2: Net 303 policy primer

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).

Page 3: Net 303 policy primer

“PLEASE READ THIS TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT……………..” (Coursera Inc, 2013)

I have read the Terms of Use I agree

Page 4: Net 303 policy primer

“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!

Page 5: Net 303 policy primer

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)

Page 6: Net 303 policy primer

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.

Page 7: Net 303 policy primer

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).

Page 8: Net 303 policy primer

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)

Page 9: Net 303 policy primer

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).

Page 10: Net 303 policy primer

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?

Page 11: Net 303 policy primer

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).

Page 12: Net 303 policy primer

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?

Page 13: Net 303 policy primer

What personal data is collected and

what happens to our personal data?

Page 14: Net 303 policy primer

What personal data is collected?

Coursera collects your data and divides it into two categories:

Non Personal Information

Personally Identifiable Information

(Coursera Inc, 2013)

Page 15: Net 303 policy primer

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)

Page 16: Net 303 policy primer

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)

Page 17: Net 303 policy primer

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

Page 18: Net 303 policy primer

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)

Page 19: Net 303 policy primer

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).

Page 20: Net 303 policy primer

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/NOIf the answer is ‘no’, then do not log in to Facebook from other websites.

Page 21: Net 303 policy primer

Now this is what may happen to your personal data…

Page 22: Net 303 policy primer

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)

Page 23: Net 303 policy primer

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)

Page 24: Net 303 policy primer

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).

Page 25: Net 303 policy primer

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, adapt, 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.

Page 26: Net 303 policy primer

Now for the Personally Identifiable Information…

Page 27: Net 303 policy primer

Personally Identifiable Information…

Your personally identifiable information is used by Coursera to track attendance and assessments during the course.

(Coursera Inc, 2013)

Page 28: Net 303 policy primer

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)

Page 29: Net 303 policy primer

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)

Page 30: Net 303 policy primer

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!

Page 31: Net 303 policy primer

…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

Page 32: Net 303 policy primer

Sounds fair…!

Page 33: Net 303 policy primer

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.

Page 34: Net 303 policy primer

…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)

Page 35: Net 303 policy primer

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

This presentation was created using PowerPoint® presentation manager This word is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License