This Cookie Statement describes how we use cookies and how you can control them. Please read our Privacy Statement for more information on how we use your personal information.

What are cookies & how do they work?

Cookies are small text files placed on your device to make sure our websites work efficiently and seamlessly and to perform certain functions. They are unique to your account or your browser. The website sends information to the browser, which then creates a text file. Every time you go back to the same website, the browser retrieves and sends this file to the website's server. Cookies cannot access, read, or modify any other data on your computer.

Learn more about cookies at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

How We Use Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies on our websites, as almost all websites do. We also use cookies when you access some of our products and services. Cookies allow us, among other things, to store your preferences and settings, authenticate and log you in, provide you with a personalized experience, keep our websites secure, and analyze how our websites and online services are performing.

The following table provides information on the types of cookies we use for our websites and products and services.

Types of cookies Blackboard uses
Type of Cookies Description
Sign-in and authentication These cookies help us authenticate you, keep you signed in, and personalize the services where you use websites and services with sign-in, such as Behind the Blackboard and Blackboard Learn.
Preferences and settings These cookies help us remember your settings and preferences and deliver a personalized experience even if you are not logged in. For example, we can store which language you prefer. We also use such cookies to help you fill out forms and surveys more easily. We use third-party cookies such as Eloqua, Acquia Lift, and GetSiteControl for these purposes.
Security Security cookies support our security features and help us detect malicious activities.
Analytics We use Blackboard and third-party cookies such as Google Analytics and Siteimprove to gather information about user activities and performance. This helps us analyze and improve the performance of our websites. It also lets us understand, improve, and research how our products and services are used and what type of devices you use to access them. The information we receive from these third-party providers is de-identified, meaning we cannot track it back to you. For Google Analytics we have enabled IP Anonymization to anonymize your IP address. Learn more about IP anonymization in Google Analytics.
Social Sharing On some of our websites we use buttons and cookies from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media services that allow you to share content via their services if you are a member and signed in. These social media companies may recognize you and collect information about your visit to our websites, and they may set a cookie or employee other tracking technologies. Your interactions with those features are governed by the privacy policies of the social media companies. Please read their privacy statements and cookie policies to understand how they use your information.
Marketing and advertising

We use cookies from third parties like Eloqua to recognize you when you return to our websites and to understand which pages you visit. If you submit your information on our pages (such as in a web form), we will link this information to the information stored on the cookie. We use this information to personalize your experience on our websites and to make sure we are communicating with you in the most relevant way possible.

We also use third-party cookies from services such as Google AdWords, Facebook Business, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and Twitter Ads. This allows those services to show you relevant ads and campaigns from us in their environment when you previously visited one of our websites. We also receive information from some of these services about which of our ads or campaigns you have interacted with. Learn more about how we use these third-party cookies for online and interest-based advertising and your choices with respect to these activities in the "Client Engagement & Marketing" section in our Privacy Statement.

Note: We do not engage in behavioral or interest-based advertising to students through the products or services we provide on behalf of an educational institution client unless as instructed by the client.


How to Control Cookies & Opt-Out

You have a variety of tools to control and opt out of cookies and similar technologies. For example, you can use browser controls to block and delete cookies. You can also use controls made available by some third-party analytics service providers to opt out of data collection through web beacons and similar technologies. In some browsers you can set your cookie preferences for each site, which means you can disable cookies in general but allow them for websites that you trust. Please remember that many of our services may not function properly if you disable cookies for our websites or services.

Learn more about the cookie settings for the most popular browsers:

For other browsers, visit the provider’s website. You should find this information by searching for "[browser name] cookie settings."

Blocking or deleting cookies does not delete Local Storage Objects (LSOs) such as Flash objects or HTML5. To manage Flash cookie settings and preferences, you must use the settings manager on Adobe’s website. If you choose to delete Flash objects from our Service, then you may not be able to access and use all or part of the Service or benefit from the information and services offered.

For information on how Google Analytics collects and processes data, as well as how you can control information sent to Google, review Google's site "How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps". Learn more about Google Analytics' currently available opt-outs, including the Google Analytics Browser Ad-On.

To learn more about your opt-out choices for online and interest-based advertising, please review the Client Engagement & Marketing section of our Privacy Statement.


More Information

Learn more about how we use personal information in our Privacy Statement. We also have a Privacy Center that explains our approach to data privacy and provides further resources.

Any questions? Please contact us at [email protected]. For more contact options, please see our Privacy Statement.

This Statement was last updated on December 10, 2020.

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