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.

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 Google Analytics and Advertising in the "Client Engagement & Marketing" section in our Privacy Statement.

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.