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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 refund policy establishes a new condition under which Coursera may deny refund requests: when a significant portion of the course content has been accessed prior to submitting the refund request. This addition does not replace existing denial grounds such as policy violations, repeated refund requests, or chargeback activity, but adds an access-based threshold alongside them. The terms do not define what constitutes a significant portion of content, leaving that determination to Coursera's discretion. Learners who access substantial course materials before requesting a refund may find their request denied under this provision.
View change record →The updated terms establish new procedural requirements for refunds on Coursera subscription plans. According to the revised language, canceling a subscription will stop future billing but will not automatically issue a refund; refunds must be requested separately. The terms now explicitly state that refunds will not be provided for renewal charges on annual subscription plans. For Specializations purchased through subscriptions, users may request a full refund within the applicable 7-day refund period or before earning a certificate, whichever occurs first. You can request a refund separately through Coursera's Support Services, but the updated terms indicate this is a manual process rather than an automatic one upon cancellation.
View change record →The updated terms no longer specify refund eligibility for users in India who prepay for specializations or Coursera Plus plans. Previously, these customers could request full refunds within 7 days of payment or before earning a certificate for any course included in their purchase, whichever occurred first. The removal of this language means refund terms for Indian prepaid customers are no longer explicitly defined in the publicly stated agreement, leaving refund policies unclear for this user segment.
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.
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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 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.
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
Provision-level monitoring, governance timelines, and regulatory mapping built from archived source documents and historical version tracking.
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 287 platforms. See the full comparison.
No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Coursera.