Privacy and Policy

We respect your right to privacy.

This Privacy Policy applies to your use of www.futureLearn.com (the “Website”). It tells you (the customer) what to expect when we collect personally identifiable information about you, and what your rights are concerning the collection of your information. It is provided in accordance with our obligations under the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We will not collect any personally identifiable information about you unless it is in response to you using our Website or actively registering for one of our online products. The security of your personally identifiable information is extremely important to us.

This Privacy Policy is regularly reviewed to make sure that we continue to serve your privacy interests and we reserve the right to update it as we deem necessary.

Please review this Privacy Policy carefully. It should be read alongside the FutureLearn Terms and the Cookies Policy. Unless otherwise defined, terms used have the same meaning as in the Terms.

If you have any questions, comments, or complaints about this Privacy Policy please contact us at the details set out below.

1. About Us

In this Privacy Policy, references to “we” or “us” are to FutureLearn Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales (registered number 8324083) whose registered office is at 71 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4V 4BE, United Kingdom.

2. What information we collect

2.1. Registering with FutureLearn.

When you register on the FutureLearn Website, when you create and update your Learner profile, and when you purchase Online Courses on the Website, we and third parties working with us will collect the following information:

  • Name, email address, age (required) Home address, date of birth, telephone number, country of nationality (required for certain courses) Other personal data if you choose to register for a FutureLearn account via third party sites including Facebook and Google, and have provided your personal information on those platforms Credit/debit card information Data relating to your use of our Website and enrolment on Online Courses Information provided by you when you correspond with us (including via surveys) Other information you choose to provide about your interests, educational background, occupation and work experience, learning goals, and other general learning preferences for the purpose of making course recommendations on our website or, if you’ve opted in, via email and personalising our services to your needs. Information provided from third party sources, such as our Partners who may invite you to a certain course.

2.2. Learning journey

When you are participating on an Online Course, we and third parties may collect and store the following additional information:

  • comments you voluntarily post while participating in online discussions with the Course educators and other Learners during the Course run any email communications with FutureLearn to seek user support or to send queries related to the Course any content submitted by you during the Course, such as written assignments, quizzes, and examinations, and the results of any assessments any data and documentation you submit in order to verify your identity where required to obtain a certificate or academic accreditation (collected by our third-party identity verification vendors who may store your information for the sole purpose of identification verification) responses you voluntarily provide to FutureLearn, the Course educators, or third parties in questionnaires, surveys, or user research that you participate in related to the Course

3. How we use your information

3.1. In providing our online services and products to you, we and third parties we work with will collect, store, and use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • 3.1.1. to manage your Learner account; 3.1.2. to provide technical support to you; 3.2.3. to send you email notifications and updates about Courses you are enrolled on; 3.1.4. where you are invited by a Course provider or a third party institution such as your employer to enrol on a Course, to allow the that entity to enrol you on the Course, and to monitor and track your progress on the Course; 3.1.5. if you are taking a Course for academic credit, professional certification and/or other formal recognition of learning, to allow the university or other institution to monitor and track your progress, to award you with the relevant recognition as applicable, and to make direct contact with you regarding your progress and completion of the Course;

4. Whom we may share your information with

4.1. For the above purposes, we may share your information with the following third parties. Please note that any third parties’ use of your personal data will be governed by their own privacy policies and give rise to separate obligations under applicable data protection laws. We suggest that you carefully review any third party privacy policies that may apply to you.

4.2.Third parties that may receive your information include:

  • 4.2.1. our payment services providers (i) PayPal (UK) Limited, (ii) Stripe Inc; and (iii) Chargebee Inc; 4.2.2. universities and other institutions that provide Online Courses on our Website, and institutions that award academic credit to Learners who successfully complete an Online Course; 4.2.3. providers of assessments and marking services when you register for an assessment or submit a piece of work for marking in connection with an Online Cours

5. How our Course providers may use your information

5.1. Some universities and other institutions that provide Online Courses on our Website are required to conduct research on their online educational programmes in order to qualify for research funds. Accordingly, your activities on an Online Course – including comments you contribute while on a Course – are shared with our Course providers to enable them to fulfil their research requirements. Any data we share for this purpose will be in line with our Research Ethics guidelines – please read the guidelines carefully to understand how our Course providers may use your data in their research and the restrictions FutureLearn imposes on their use of your data.

5.2. In addition, after you have registered with FutureLearn and together with our academic partners we may use your data to determine the level of interest in enrolling in further courses offered by the academic partner.

5.3. Our Course providers may also embed links within the Online Course material or within emails related to the Course, and such links if selected will take you off the FutureLearn Website and bring you to a third party website, for which the Course provider is solely responsible. If you are asked to submit personal information on any third party websites, the collection of that information will not be covered by this Privacy Policy and you must familiarise yourself with the terms and conditions and privacy policy of the third party website before submitting your information. At no time will you be required to submit any information on third party websites as a condition for continuing the Online Course on the FutureLearn Website, and your decision not to provide information on third party websites will never affect your progress or any marks on the Course.

6. Legal Basis for Processing Your Information

We have several legal bases for collecting and using the personal information described above. They are:

  • 6.1. Where the use of your personal information is necessary to perform our obligations under any contract with you (including providing you with access to Online Courses on the Website for which you have registered and/or made a purchase); 6.2. Where we have your explicit consent to collect, store, and use your information for a particular purpose, including where you consent to receiving marketing and promotional communications for products on our Website or third party websites; 6.3. Where use of your personal information is necessary for purposes of pursuing FutureLearn’s legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party such as our Course providers, as long as these interests are not outweighed by your own interests, fundamental rights, or freedoms. For example, we will need to ensure that in these cases you would reasonably expect your personal information to be used, and that it would have a minimal impact on your personal privacy. Such legitimate interests are:

7. Storage and Security of Information

7.1. All information is stored on our secure servers. When you register, we will ask you to choose a password which enables you to access the Online Courses and Content. You are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share this password with anyone.

7.2. In addition, we (or third parties acting on our behalf) may also store or process information that we collect about you in countries outside the United Kingdom or outside the European Economic Area, which may have different standards of data protection than in the UK. Specifically, servers used by our Website are located in the Republic of Ireland and we work with Course providers and third party service providers around the world. We have put in place technical and organisational security measures to prevent the loss or unauthorised access of your personal information. However, whilst we have used our best efforts to ensure the security of your data, it is your responsibility to make an informed decision to avail yourself of our services and products or if your concerns about the handling of data require you to refrain from using our Website.

8. Data Retention

8.1. We retain personal information we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements).

8.2. When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymise it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

9. Your Rights

9.1. You have the following data protection rights:

  • 9.1.1. You can edit your personal details via your profile page whenever you wish. We maintain a procedure in order to help you confirm that your personal information remains correct and up-to-date or choose whether or not you wish to receive material from us or some of our partners. 9.1.2. You have the right to object to your personal data being used for direct marketing purposes including to personalise the course recommendations you see on our platform. You can exercise this right by contacting us using the contact details provided under the “Contact details” heading below. 9.1.3. In addition, you can object to processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information or request portability of your personal information. Again, you can exercise these rights by contacting us using the contact details provided under the “Contact details” heading below.