Udemy shares Students' personal information with Instructors
Today, I discovered a major turn-off about a service I otherwise love: Udemy. Long story short, Udemy shares our personal information with instructors. And, as they imply in their advertising, anyone can be an instructor on Udemy. Yes, anyone can have access to your personal information (if you happen to enroll in their course)... even deranged con-artists.
Here are the details:
Direct quote from Udemy Privacy Policy as of January 16, 2015 (I added the color):
Translation (by me) and some commentary:
The Norm
Many companies share our personal information with other parties. However, many of those companies also state those recipients of our personal information are bound to the same privacy policy or some other published privacy policy. In this case, Udemy leaves it to the student to inquire about the instructor's use of their personal information; verify the response is accurate; and enforce those terms!
Questions:
I'm disappointed in Udemy with respect to this "it's your problem now" approach to sharing our personal information.
Otherwise, I am a big fan of Udemy. However, I can't help but hesitate to enroll in courses now.
Recommendation to Udemy:
If you're going to share our personal information with instructors, at least...
Here are the details:
Direct quote from Udemy Privacy Policy as of January 16, 2015 (I added the color):
"You also consent to our providing this personally identifiable information to Instructors as part of the Course Information when you enroll in a Course. Instructors will use this Course Information to provide the Course to you. Instructors may have other users [sic] for Course Information. It is your responsibility when you enroll in a Course to confirm what uses the Instructor will make of your personally identifiable Course Information. Udemy does not control these uses by Instructors."
Translation (by me) and some commentary:
Students give Udemy some personal information when creating an account or enrolling in a course. This privacy policy allows Udemy to share that personal information with instructors of courses, but does not dictate how the instructors use our personal information.Remember: anyone (even the deranged con-artist) can be an instructor on Udemy! Not to say any of the instructors are, but nothing is stopped those types of characters from becoming instructors.
The Norm
Many companies share our personal information with other parties. However, many of those companies also state those recipients of our personal information are bound to the same privacy policy or some other published privacy policy. In this case, Udemy leaves it to the student to inquire about the instructor's use of their personal information; verify the response is accurate; and enforce those terms!
Questions:
- What of our personal information does Udemy provide to instructors?
- What types of things are instructors doing with this personal information?
- How do instructors protect our personal information (does it end up on an insecure USB stick; or sold to marketers or identity thieves)?
I'm disappointed in Udemy with respect to this "it's your problem now" approach to sharing our personal information.
Otherwise, I am a big fan of Udemy. However, I can't help but hesitate to enroll in courses now.
Recommendation to Udemy:
If you're going to share our personal information with instructors, at least...
- require instructors to publish a privacy policy stating how they will use our personal information.
- tell us specifically what information you will be sharing with them. One of your "LET'S GO" values is Openness (see their blog).
- Don't provide our personal information to instructors. (Why do they need to identify us personally anyway?)
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