IBM SkillsBuild Data Privacy Policy (for Adult Learners)

Effective: 12 Nov 2024 Privacy Statement archive

This policy was last updated on August 14, 2024.

If your access to SkillsBuild is provided by IBM, IBM is the controller of your data and the following applies. If your access to SkillsBuild is provided by a Non-Profit Organization (NPO), that NPO is the controller of your data and its Privacy Policy, available through the NPO, applies to your use of SkillsBuild.

SkillsBuild processes data according to the IBM Privacy Statement. This SkillsBuild Privacy Statement supplements the information presented in the IBM Privacy Statement.

You can request to access, update, delete or correct your personal information. You also have the right to object to direct marketing. You can access the request process here.

SkillsBuild collects Personal Information (PI) such as contact information (e.g.: name, email, phone number, address, country, language and NPO if any affiliation) and learning transaction information (e.g.: enrollments, completions, training programs, expertise) in order to identify you in our system, to track your learning preferences, progress, and earned credentials and to improve the learning experience.

In addition, SkillsBuild captures and processes data pertaining to:

SkillsBuild Surveys

Surveys are provided for many learning activities and platform functionalities provided by partners. These surveys are completed within a third party application, where Personal Information (PI) is anonymized for reporting. Survey results are stored in SkillsBuild and used for managing learning programs and for improving the quality of our learning offerings. PI (name, email, country, language) which may be submitted by users in the survey(s) is gathered to assess the effectiveness of the SkillsBuild program.

Learner Actions

Your actions and choices when interacting with SkillsBuild are stored and analyzed via reports. These reports are used to measure the effectiveness of our platform and to improve the user experience.

Learner Comments/Ratings

The Services may from time to time offer areas where you and other users can post or otherwise submit comments (e.g. discussion boards), information, creative suggestions, ideas, notes, concepts, information, ratings or other materials (for instance: tags, contributions to learning content, assignments) on or to the Services (collectively, "Submissions"). Your name and profile photo, if any, will be associated with any Submission you make and will be available to other users of the Services, including your organization or SkillsBuild Administrator. You agree that your Submissions will comply with our Terms of use. We do not monitor or review this content before it is posted, and we cannot control and are not responsible for how others may use the information contained in your Submissions.

Learning Activity Recommendations

Recommendations are calculated from SkillsBuild, your profile, and your learning data and then presented to you on SkillsBuild. These recommendations assist learners in selecting learning activities that support their ongoing career development.

Such information is shared with SkillsBuild administrators, and any NPO that provided you access to SkillsBuild, as permitted by local law. Those with access to this information must adhere to all applicable SkillsBuild policies, practices and guidelines regarding the protection of user information and SkillsBuild Confidential information, and are under a contractual obligation to not further disseminate this information to anyone. Anonymized aggregate data may be shared with third parties or publicly for valid business purposes. To the extent you obtain data of any individual or organization other than yourself or your organization through SkillsBuild, you agree to notify IBM and destroy such data immediately upon receipt.

SkillsBuild provides its users with links to courses and other materials on third party websites. When you follow such links, the data you share with or on the third party site(s) is governed by that websites’ terms of use and privacy statements.

We may use your email address and name for sending you technical / operational emails. For example, updates of the privacy notice and terms of use, planned maintenance, application changes which may affect you.

For additional information about IBM’s privacy practices, including information about your data rights and how to contact IBM with questions please see the IBM Privacy Statement.

Users

SkillsBuild for Adult Learners and its services are only intended for use by people who are at least 18 years old.

Administrators

If you are an administrator your name and email may be used for documenting administrative activities. Examples are requests for new organizations or changes on organizations or access management activities.

Ticket / Helpdesk

Your email address or person ID may be shared in tickets with people with a need to know in order to analyze and troubleshoot problems related to your data.

Virtual Assistant

If you use the virtual assistant (AI chatbot), we may email or securely transmit your personal information to our helpdesk if necessary to respond to your inquiry. After the conclusion of your conversation with the assistant, we will store anonymized data about the conversation for quality assurance purposes.