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LifestylePrivacy Policy
What we collect when you use CourseDuck, why, who else receives it, and the choices you have. Written to be read, not just published.
The short version
- You can read every page, and use the search and coupon pages, without an account. Reviews, price alerts, the newsletter and blog comments are the only things that ask for your details.
- We do not sell personal information. The only companies that receive anything about your visit are Google (analytics), Meta (advertising), Cloudflare (our network layer) and, when you click through to a course, that provider. You can switch the first two off in one click.
- Email mkuhlman12@gmail.com to see, correct or delete anything we hold about you.
Who we are
CourseDuck (www.courseduck.com) is an online-course directory run from California, United States. Our postal address and phone number are on the contact page; for anything in this policy the quickest route is mkuhlman12@gmail.com.
What we collect
Things you give us
- An account. Username, email address, password (stored as a hash, we cannot read it) and, if you fill them in, first and last name, website, a short bio and an avatar picture. Picking topics on your dashboard records those too.
- Reviews. The star rating, the text, and the name you sign it with, which is shown publicly next to the review. We also record the IP address the review was posted from and the date, to spot fake and duplicate reviews.
- Price alerts. If you ask us to watch a course's price, we store your email address, the course, the price you are waiting for, your IP address and the time.
- The newsletter. Your email address, the time you subscribed and the IP address you subscribed from.
- Blog comments. Name, email address, optional website, the comment, and your IP address and browser, as WordPress records for spam control.
- Emails and occasional forms. Anything you send us by email, and the occasional form on the site (a job application, a contest entry) which is stored on our server and emailed to us.
Things collected automatically
- Server logs. Like every website, our web server records the address of each page requested with the requester's IP address, browser and time. Logs are deleted after 14 days.
- Campaign tracking. On your first page view a cookie named
subidCookieis set for 24 hours and a record is written with the page you landed on, any campaign tags in the address (utm_*, gclid), your IP address and your Google Analytics client id if you have one. It tells us which campaigns bring people to the site. - Clicks to course providers. When you follow a link to a course we count the click: which course, which provider, the page you were on, where you came from, your country (a two-letter code Cloudflare attaches) and a one-way hash of your IP address, not the address itself. This is how we know which courses and providers people actually use.
- Searches. Each search you run on the site is stored with your IP address and the time, so we can see what people look for and keep bots out of the statistics.
- Coupon pages. The Udemy coupon pages look up your country from your IP address in a database on our own server, to show prices and offers that apply where you are. Nothing is sent anywhere for that.
- Cookies and similar tools. Google Analytics and the Facebook Pixel run on every page unless you opt out. Every cookie is listed on the Cookie Policy page.
Why we use it
- To run the site: show your reviews, keep you signed in, send the newsletter and price alerts you asked for, answer your emails.
- To keep it honest: spot fake, paid or duplicate reviews, spam comments and abusive traffic. Reviewers' IP addresses and hashed click data exist for this.
- To understand what works: which pages, courses, providers, searches and campaigns people use. Google Analytics is used for the same purpose, and the Facebook Pixel measures our own advertising.
- To meet legal duties, and to defend our rights if we ever need to.
Under the GDPR, for readers in the UK and the European Union, these are our legitimate interests in running a review site, the contract with you when you hold an account, and your consent where you subscribe or post.
Who receives it
- Google. Google Analytics on every page (opt out here), YouTube embeds on course pages, the map on the contact page, and our email: messages you send us arrive in a Gmail mailbox.
- Meta. The Facebook Pixel on every page, unless you opt out.
- Cloudflare. All traffic to the site passes through Cloudflare's network, which protects and speeds up the site and therefore sees your IP address and requests.
- Course providers. When you click through to Udemy, Coursera, edX or another provider, you leave our site and their privacy policy applies. Some of those links are affiliate links, which tell the provider the visit came from CourseDuck so that we can earn a commission. We never send them your name, email address or anything else about you.
- Nobody else, unless the law requires it. We do not sell personal information and we do not rent out the newsletter list.
Our servers are in California, United States. If you visit from elsewhere, your data is processed there.
How long we keep it
- Account: until you ask us to delete it.
- Reviews: published until you ask us to take them down. The IP address recorded with a review is kept with it.
- Newsletter and price alerts: until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove you.
- Server logs: 14 days.
- Campaign, click and search records: kept as statistics. They are not linked to your account.
- Emails and forms: as long as we need them to deal with what you wrote to us about.
Your choices
- Tracking: switch off Google Analytics and the Facebook Pixel for your browser on the Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information page. Browsers that send the Global Privacy Control signal are switched off automatically.
- Newsletter: every issue has an unsubscribe link, or email us.
- Account details: change them yourself on your profile page.
- See, correct or delete: email mkuhlman12@gmail.com and we will send you what we hold, fix it, or delete it, within 45 days. We confirm requests by replying to the email address on your account, or by asking for details only you would know.
- California residents have specific rights under the CCPA, set out on the Do Not Sell or Share page. Readers in the UK and the EU can use their GDPR rights the same way, and may complain to their local data protection authority.
Affiliate links
Some course links are affiliate links: if you enrol through them the provider pays us a commission, at no cost to you. It is how the site is paid for. Commissions never affect how a course ranks or what a review says; that promise is explained on our About page.
Security
The site runs over HTTPS only, sits behind Cloudflare, stores passwords as hashes and keeps its software updated. Only the small team that runs CourseDuck can see account, newsletter and review data. No website can promise perfect security, so please use a password you do not use anywhere else.
Children
CourseDuck is not aimed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you think we have, email us and we will delete it.
Changes
When this policy changes we update the date below. If a change matters to something you have already given us, we will say so on this page.