Privacy Policy

Purpose and who we are

Pastoral Theological Seminary is an accredited Theological & Academic Institution of Higher Learning with a principal place of business at Spintex Avenue, Accra Ghana. The purpose of this Privacy Notice is to describe how Pastoral Theological Seminary, our subsidiaries, and our international branches, (“Pastoral Theological Seminary,” “us,” “we,” or “our”) collects, uses, and shares information about you through our online interfaces (e.g., websites and mobile applications) owned and controlled by us, including but not limited to ptsedugh.com and prc.ptsedugh.com (collectively referred to herein as the “Site”). Please read this Privacy Notice carefully to understand what we do. If you do not understand any aspects of our Privacy Notice, please feel free to contact us at privacy@ptsedugh.com. Your use of our Site is also governed by our Terms of Use. Terms used but not defined in this Privacy Notice can be found in our Terms of Use. 

What Information this Privacy Notice Covers

This Privacy Notice covers information we collect from you through our Site. Some of our Site’s functionality can be used without revealing any Personal Data, but for features or Services related to the Content Offerings, Personal Data is required. In order to access certain features and benefits on our Site, you may need to submit, or we may collect, “Personal Data” (i.e., information that can be used to identify you and which may also be referred to as “personally identifiable information” or “personal information”). Personal Data can include information such as your name, email address, IP address, and device identifier, among other things. You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the Personal Data you submit to Coursera. Inaccurate information may affect your ability to use the Site, the information you receive when using the Site, and our ability to contact you. For example, your email address should be kept current because that is one of the primary manners in which we communicate with you.

What You Agree to by Using Our Site

We consider that the legal bases for using your personal information as set out in this Privacy Notice are as follows:

• our use of your personal information is necessary to perform our obligations under any contract with you (for example, to comply with the Terms of Use of our Site which you accept by browsing our website and/or to comply with our contract to provide Services to you, your academic institution, your employer, or other organization that may be providing you with access to our Services); or
• our use of your personal information is necessary for complying with our legal obligations; or
• use of your personal information is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of others. Our legitimate interests are to:
  • run, grow and develop our business;
  • operate our Site and provide our Services;
  • select appropriately skilled and qualified suppliers;
  • build relationships with partners and academic institutions;
  • carry out research and statistical analysis;
  • carry out marketing and business development; and
  • for internal administrative and auditing purposes.
• consent, to send you certain communications or where you submit certain information to us, or where required to rely upon consent by local law.

Which legal basis applies to a specific activity will depend on the type of personal information used and the context in which it is being used.

If we rely on our (or another party’s) legitimate interests for using your personal information, we will undertake a balancing test to ensure that our (or the other party’s) legitimate interests are not outweighed by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms which require protection of the personal information.

We may process your personal information in some cases for marketing purposes on the basis of your consent (which you may withdraw at any time as described below).

If we rely on your consent for us to use your personal information in a particular way, but you later change your mind, you may withdraw your consent by visiting your profile page and clicking the box to remove consent and we will stop doing so. If you withdraw your consent, this may impact the ability for us to provide some of our Services to you.

What Information We Collect

We may collect different data from or about you depending on how you use the Services. Below are some examples to help you better understand the data we collect. Primarily, while using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you. Personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) may include, but is not limited to:

• Name
• Email address
• Telephone number
• Country of Residence
• Address

We gather two types of information about users through the Site:

• Information relating to your use of our Site. When users come to our Site, we may track, collect, and aggregate information indicating, among other things, which pages of our Site were visited, the order in which they were visited, when they were visited, and which hyperlinks were clicked. We also collect information from the URLs from which you linked to our Site. Collecting such information may involve logging the IP address, operating system, and browser software used by each user of the Site. We may be able to determine from an IP address a user’s Internet Service Provider and the geographic location of their point of connectivity. Location data may be used to route your traffic to the nearest regional server to reduce latency and improve your experience. We may also use cookies and web beacons when you visit our Site. For more information on our use of cookies and web beacons, please refer to our Cookies Policy.
• Personal Data provided directly by you or via third parties. We collect Personal Data that you provide to us when you register for an account, update or change information for your account, purchase products or Services, complete a survey, sign-up for email updates, participate in our public forums, send us email messages, and/or participate in Content Offerings or other Services on our Site. We may use the Personal Data that you provide to respond to your questions, provide you the specific Content Offering and/or Services you select, send you updates about Content Offerings or other Coursera events, and send you email messages about Site maintenance or updates.

We collect certain data from you directly, like information you enter yourself, data about your consumption of content, and data from third-party platforms you connect with Pastoral Theological Seminary. We also collect some data automatically, like information about your device and what parts of our Services you interact with or spend time using.

When you create an account and use the Services, including through a third-party platform, we collect any data you provide directly, including:

The data listed above is stored by Pastoral Theological Seminary and associated with your user account.

Data We Collect through Automated Means

When you access the Services (including browsing content), we collect certain data by automated means, including: The data listed above is collected through the use of server log files and tracking technologies, as detailed in the “Cookies and Data Collection Tools” section below. It is stored by us and associated with your account.

• Account Registration. If you register for an account on our Site, you may be required to provide us with Personal Data such as your name and email address.
• Updates. Pastoral Theological Seminary may offer you the ability to receive updates either via email or by posting on portions of the Site only accessible to registered users. In order to subscribe to these Services, you may be required to provide us with Personal Data such as your name and email address.
• Participation in Content Offerings. Coursera offers users the opportunity to participate in Content Offerings on or through the Site. If you desire to participate in a Content Offering, you will be asked to provide us with certain information necessary to conduct such a Content Offering. This information may include, among other things, your name and email address.

If you participate in a Content Offering, we may collect certain user-generated content, such as assignments you submit, peer-graded assignments, and peer grading feedback. We also collect course data, such as responses to in-video quizzes, standalone quizzes, exams, and surveys. You should not include any Personal Data or other information of a personal or sensitive nature, whether relating to you or another person, on assignments, exams, or surveys, except for information required to participate in or submit such assignments, exams, or surveys.

• Identity Verification. Pastoral Theological Seminary may offer you the ability to verify your identity for select Services. In order to enroll for these Services, you may be required to provide us or our third-party identity verification vendor with Personal Data such as your name, address, date of birth, a headshot taken using a webcam, and a photo identification document. Additionally, if you apply for financial aid in connection with these Services, you may be required to provide information regarding your income.
• Communications with Pastoral Theological Seminary. We may receive Personal Data when you send us an email message or otherwise contact us.
• Third Party Sites. We may receive Personal Data when you access or log-in to a third party site, e.g., Facebook, from our Sites. This may include the text and/or images of your Personal Data available from the third party site.
• Surveys. We may receive Personal Data when you provide information in response to a survey operated by us or a Content Provider.
• Partner sites. Partner sites providing Content Offering-related tools and services to Pastoral Theological Seminary users may collect nonfinancial individual-level user data regarding the individual’s use of that partner site while the partner sites provide those services to Pastoral Theological Seminary. The partner sites may share that data with Pastoral Theological Seminary for the purpose of improving our Services, the partner site’s services, and the individual’s education experience. This data includes information such as the amount of time spent on the partner site and pages viewed.
• Third Party Payment Processing. Pastoral Theological Seminary provides you with the ability to pay for Content Offerings and other Services using a credit card or other methods through a third party payment processing service provider. Please note that our service provider – not Pastoral Theological Seminary – collects and processes your financial information.

How We Use the Information

• Information relating to your use of our Site. We use information relating to your use of the Site to build higher quality, more useful Services by performing statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behavior of our users, and by measuring demographics and interests regarding specific areas of our Site. We may also use this information to ensure the security of our Services and the Site.
• Personally Identifiable Information provided directly by you or via third parties. Except as set forth in this Privacy Notice or as specifically agreed to by you, Pastoral Theological Seminary will not disclose any of your Personal Data. In addition to the other uses set forth in this Privacy Notice, we may disclose and otherwise use Personal Data as described below.

• Providing the Site and our Services. We use Personal Data which you provide to us in order to allow you to access and use the Site and in order to provide any information, products, or Services that you request from us.
• Technical support and security. We may use Personal Data to provide technical support to you, where required, and to ensure the security of our Services and the Site.
• Updates. We use Personal Data collected when you sign-up for our various email or update services to send you the messages in connection with the Site or Content Offerings. We may also archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you, where we are legally entitled to do so.
• Forums. You should not post any personally identifiable information or other information of a personal or sensitive nature, whether relating to you or another person, within a Forum post. If you choose to post personally identifiable information, such personally identifiable information may be collected during your use of the Forums. We may publish this information via extensions of our platform that use third-party services, like mobile applications. We reserve the right to reuse Forum posts that contain personally identifiable information in future versions of the Content Offerings, and to enhance future Content Offerings. We may archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you and/or your designee(s), and/or provide it to the Content Provider, business partners, or the instructor(s) associated with the courses you have taken. We may also use or publish posts submitted on the Forums without using personally identifiable information.
• Participation in Content Offerings. We use the Personal Data that we collect from you when you participate in a Content Offering through the Site for processing purposes, including but not limited to tracking attendance, progress, and completion of the Content Offerings. We may also share your Personal Data and your performance in a given Content Offering with the instructor or instructors who taught it, with teaching assistants or other individuals designated by the instructor or instructors to assist with the creation, modification, or operation of the Content Offering, and with the Content Provider(s) with which they are affiliated. We may also use the information generated when taking a Content Offering or using the Services for predictive analysis of your performance in the Content Offerings. Also, we may archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you, where we are legally entitled to do so.
• Identity Verification. For Services that require identity verification, we may use the Personal Data that we collect for verifying your identity, and for authenticating that submissions made on the Site were made by you. This service may be provided through a third-party identity verification vendor. Your photo identification document will be deleted after successful verification of your profile information.
• Communications with or from Pastoral Theological Seminary. When you send us an email message or otherwise contact us, we may use the information provided by you to respond to your communication and/or as described in this Privacy Notice. We may also archive this information and/or use it for future communications with you where we are legally entitled to do so. Where we send you emails, we may track the way that you interact with these emails (such as when you open an email or click on a link inside an email). We use this information for the purposes of optimizing and better tailoring our communications to you.
• Communications with Pastoral Theological Seminary Business Partners. We may share your Personal Data with Content Providers and other business partners of Pastoral Theological Seminary so that Content Providers and other business partners may share information about their products and services that may be of interest to you where they are legally entitled to do so.
• Research. We may share general course data (including quiz or assignment submissions, grades, and forum discussions), information about your activity on our Site, and demographic data from surveys operated by us with our Content Providers and other business partners so that our Content Providers and other business partners may use the data for research related to online education.
• Disclosure to Pastoral Theological Seminary Operations and Maintenance Contractors. We use various service providers, vendors, and contractors (collectively, “Contractors”) to assist us in providing our Services to you. Our Contractors may have limited access to your Personal Data in the course of providing their products or services to us, so that we in turn can provide our Services to you. These Contractors may include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, and/or content related to the operation and maintenance of the Site or the Content Offerings. Access to your Personal Data by these Contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary for the Contractor to perform its limited function for us.
• Government Authorities; Legal Rights and Actions. Pastoral Theological Seminary may share your Personal Data with various government authorities in response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal processes; to establish or exercise our legal rights or to protect our property; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases we reserve the right to raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us. We also may share your Personal Data when we believe it is appropriate to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities; to protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of the Institution, the Site, our users, customers, or others; and in connection with our Terms of Use and other agreements.

External Links

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. For your convenience we may provide links to sites operated by organizations other than Pastoral Theological Seminary (“Third Party Sites”) that we believe may be of interest to you. We do not disclose your Personal Data to these Third Party Sites unless we have a lawful basis on which to do so. We do not endorse and are not responsible for the privacy practices of these Third Party Sites. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services. If you choose to click on a link to one of these Third Party Sites, you should review the privacy policy posted on the other site to understand how that Third Party Site collects and uses your Personal Data.

Service Providers

We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service, to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used. These third parties have access to your Personal Information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

Retention of Personally Identifiable Information

We keep your Personal Data for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which the Personal Data is collected and processed. The length of time we retain Personal Data for depends on the purposes for which we collect and use it and/or as required to comply with applicable laws and to establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights.

Confidentiality & Security of Personally Identifiable Information

We will use industry standard physical, technical, and administrative security measures to keep your Personal Data confidential and secure, and will not share it with third parties, except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Notice, or unless such disclosure is necessary in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others, as permitted by applicable law. Because the Internet is not a 100% secure environment, we cannot guarantee the security of Personal Data, and there is some risk that an unauthorized third party may find a way to circumvent our security systems or that transmission of your information over the Internet will be intercepted. It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login information. Please note that e-mail communications are typically not encrypted and should not be considered secure.

Updating or Deleting Your Personal Data

You have certain rights in relation to your Personal Data. You can access your Personal Data and confirm that it remains correct and up-to-date, choose whether or not you wish to receive material from us or some of our partners, and request that we delete or provide you with a copy of your personal data by logging into the Site, selecting ‘Settings’ from the dropdown in the top right, and scrolling down to find the appropriate option. The ability to delete an account may be disabled for some users, particularly those who are enrolled in for-credit offerings such as degrees, Professional certificate programs, and other similar offerings.

If you would like further information in relation to your rights or would like to exercise any of them, you may also contact us via privacy@ptsedugh.com.  You may have the right to request that we:

• provide access to any Personal Data we hold about you;
• prevent the processing of your Personal Data for direct-marketing purposes;
• update any Personal Data which is out of date or incorrect;
• delete any Personal Data which we are holding about you;
• restrict the way that we process your Personal Data;
• provide your Personal Data to a third party provider of services; or
• provide you with a copy of any Personal Data which we hold about you.

We try to answer every request promptly where possible, and provide our response within the time period stated by applicable law. Keep in mind, however, that when deleting your Personal Data there may be residual information that will remain within our databases, access logs, and other records, which may or may not contain your Personal Data. Please also note that certain Personal Data may be exempt from such requests in certain circumstances, which may include if we need to retain your Personal Data to comply with a legal obligation. When you email us with a request, we may ask that you provide us with information necessary to confirm your identity.