The agreement prohibits a defined list of activities including automated scraping, unauthorized data collection, commercial solicitation without approval, spam transmission, and actions that compromise platform security or infrastructure. Violations may result in account suspension or termination.
This analysis describes what Coursera's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision establishes the baseline conditions under which account access is maintained. Violations of the acceptable use policy may trigger account suspension or termination without prior notice under the termination clause. The prohibition on collecting personally identifiable information from the platform is relevant to third-party researchers, developers, and institutional users conducting data analysis.
The updated terms remove the explicit guarantee that Coursera provides a 7-day free trial for subscriptions. The revised language states that 'certain subscriptions may come with a free trial period' without specifying a default duration or which subscriptions include trials. This creates operational uncertainty for users: trial availability and length are no longer stated in the main terms but are now delegated entirely to individual checkout pages. Users evaluating whether a subscription includes a trial must now visit the specific product page rather than relying on the standard terms.
View change record →New detailed provision prohibits specific harmful activities including web scraping, automated access, spam, and security interference to protect platform integrity.
View full change record →Under this clause, users who engage in prohibited activities including automated data collection, commercial solicitation, or security interference risk account suspension or termination. The prohibition on harvesting personally identifiable information from the platform applies to any user or operator accessing Coursera services.
How other platforms handle this
You agree not to engage in any of the following prohibited activities: (i) copying, distributing, or disclosing any part of the Services in any medium; (ii) using any automated system, including 'robots,' 'spiders,' 'offline readers,' etc., to access the Services; (iii) transmitting spam, chain lett...
You agree not to post, upload, publish, submit or transmit any content that: (i) infringes, misappropriates or violates a third party's patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy; (ii) violates, or encourages any ...
You agree not to engage in any of the following prohibited activities: (i) copying, distributing, or disclosing any part of the Service in any medium, including without limitation by any automated or non-automated 'scraping'; (ii) using any automated system, including without limitation 'robots,' 's...
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"You agree not to engage in any of the following prohibited activities: (i) copying, distributing, or disclosing any part of the Services in any medium, including without limitation by any automated or non-automated 'scraping'; (ii) using any automated system, including without limitation 'robots,' 'spiders,' 'offline readers,' etc., to access the Services; (iii) transmitting spam, chain letters, or other unsolicited email; (iv) attempting to interfere with, compromise the system integrity or security or decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running the Services; (v) taking any action that imposes, or may impose at our sole discretion an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure; (vi) uploading invalid data, viruses, worms, or other software agents through the Services; (vii) collecting or harvesting any personally identifiable information, including account names, from the Services; (viii) using the Services for any commercial solicitation purposes without our prior written approval.— Excerpt from Coursera's Coursera Terms of Use
REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: The prohibition on unauthorized data collection and scraping engages the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and analogous state laws. The FTC Act's prohibition on unfair or deceptive practices is relevant if account suspension for acceptable use violations results in loss of paid-for access without refund. GDPR and CCPA are implicated by the prohibition on harvesting personally identifiable information. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Low for standard users; Medium for institutional users deploying API integrations, data analytics tools, or automated enrollment systems that interact with the Coursera platform. The prohibition on automated access without explicit authorization may affect LMS integrations. JURISDICTION FLAGS: The CFAA has been interpreted variably by federal circuit courts with respect to authorized access and scraping, creating legal uncertainty for automated data access use cases. EU/EEA users may have GDPR-based protections relevant to the data harvesting prohibition. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Institutional deployers using API integrations or automated enrollment tools should confirm that their implementation is explicitly authorized under enterprise agreements or Coursera's API terms to avoid triggering the automated access prohibition. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Compliance teams should audit any automated workflows or third-party integrations connected to Coursera to confirm they do not fall within the prohibited conduct categories, particularly regarding automated access and data collection.
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This provision establishes the baseline conditions under which account access is maintained. Violations of the acceptable use policy may trigger account suspension or termination without prior notice under the termination clause. The prohibition on collecting personally identifiable information from the platform is relevant to third-party researchers, developers, and institutional users conducting data analysis.
Under this clause, users who engage in prohibited activities including automated data collection, commercial solicitation, or security interference risk account suspension or termination. The prohibition on harvesting personally identifiable information from the platform applies to any user or operator accessing Coursera services.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 8 platforms. See the full comparison.
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