Turnitin Website Privacy Policy

​Last Updated: 08/24/2021

Note for California Residents: This Privacy Policy and the related Cookie Notice describes how we process your Personal Information and your rights and choices over our processing. In addition, the Notice for California Residents section referenced below, contains specific details related to your rights under California law, including your right to opt out of “sales” of Personal Information.

This Privacy Policy applies to websites (collectively, “Websites”), owned and operated by Turnitin, LLC (“Turnitin,” “we,” “us”).  It does not apply to our education products, which are governed by the policy available here.  This policy describes how we may collect, use, and disclose personal information from visitors to our Websites (“you,” “your”). It also describes your choices regarding use, access, and changes to your personal information. 

By accessing or using Turnitin Websites, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not access or use the Websites.                    

In addition to reviewing this Privacy Policy, please also review our Website Terms of Use  because the Website Terms of Use and all its terms and conditions are an agreement between you and us.

• Information We Collect

• A Note About Children
• Usage Information and Cookies
• Third Party Cookies and Tracking
• Cookies Served on Our Websites

• How We Use and Disclose Your Personal Information
• How You May Modify Your Information
• Third Parties
• Links
• Turnitin Educator Network
• Security
• Data Retention
• Opt-Out Policy
• Notices For California Residents
• Additional Information for Users from the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, and the UK
• Additional Data Rights
• Updates to This Policy
• Contact

When you visit our Websites, we may collect certain personal information from you (“Personal Information”), which is information that identifies or reasonably relates to a specific person or household, or that is otherwise defined as personal information, personal data, or protected data under applicable laws.

If you request information about our education products or ask a question of our customer support team, we will ask you to provide certain Personal Information so that we may respond to your request. This may include information such as your first and last name, physical address, work email address, telephone number, job role, institution name, institution type and country. If you choose to join our Educator Network, we will also ask you for a password to help secure your account.

A Note About Children

Our Websites are intended for a general audience, and not for individuals under the age of 13 or otherwise under the age of consent in each region in which we operate (“children,” “child”).  We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children.  Should we learn that we have inadvertently collected Personal Information from a child, we will take steps to promptly delete it.

Usage Information and Cookies:

As is common with many websites, when you access our Websites, our servers automatically collect the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address associated with your computer. We may also collect additional information such as a browser type and version, the operating system of your device and language, country, as well as areas in the Websites you visit most frequently and when. If you log into your Educator Network account, we also collect the login timestamp. This information is used to help us administer the Websites, remember your preferences, and diagnose technical problems.  We also analyze the information for aggregate trends about how our Websites are used and to help improve our Websites. 

To collect this information, we use the following technologies: 

Cookies. Cookies are small data files sent by a website and stored on the computer or device at the request of that site. Cookies store information related to a user's browser to enable us to recognize the browser on return visits to our Websites and to remember your preferences. 

Pixel tags. A pixel tag (also referred to as a “clear gif” or “web beacon”) allows us to track the online usage patterns of the Websites and to understand which links are clicked. When we send you emails that you have opted into, pixel tags also allow us to track which emails are opened. This information is used to help us improve the Websites. 

HTML5 Storage. HTML5 storage or local storage allows us to distinguish your device from others and to remember information that might be important for the functioning of the Websites, such as to remember your location preference or your logged in state. Typically, HTML5 storage is only deleted if all Internet history, cache, and cookies are deleted. Check your browser controls for information on how to delete your HTML5 storage.

Third Party Cookies and Tracking:

We use third-party service providers to assist us in collecting and understanding usage information and serving advertising. Most browsers can be set to detect browser cookies and to let a user reject them, but refusing cookies may affect certain features of our Websites that are provided for your convenience.

A list of companies that use cookies on our Websites, the services they provide, and information on how you may opt out of certain cookies is included in the section on “Cookies Served on Our Websites.” To make choices about cookies placed by us or our third parties on our Websites, you may do so by visiting our choice center. If you do not/no longer want to have cookies placed on your browser by third parties, many of them also offer ways to opt out. To learn more about browser cookies, including how to manage or delete them, refer to the “Tools,” “Help,” or similar section of your web browser.

We do not serve targeted advertising on our Websites; however, when you use the Internet, we and our third parties, as well as unaffiliated third parties including ad networks, web analytics companies and social networking platforms may use tracking technologies such as those described above, to collect information about your online activities over time and across our and other websites. We and they may use this information to measure the effectiveness of our advertising and to target advertisements for products and services that may interest you.

 This information may be used to provide advertisements for products and services that may interest you, and those companies may use cookies, clear GIFs and other tracking technologies.       

As with most sites, we do not honor “do not track” signals transmitted by web browsers as there is no industry standard for implementing such programs. For more information about third-party advertisers and how to prevent them from using your information, visit the NAI’s consumer website at https://www.networkadvertising.org/choices, https://www.aboutads.info/choices/, or https://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/.  If you do want to opt out using these tools, you need to opt out separately for each of your devices and for each web browser (such as Chrome, Edge Firefox, Safari or others) that you use on each device.  To find out more about DNT, please visit http://allaboutdnt.com.  Note that DNT is different than the Global Privacy Control (GPC), which we do respond to in certain territories, such as Europe and California.  To find out more about GPC, please visit https://globalprivacycontrol.org/.

Our Websites places first party cookies on your browser, and we allow third parties to also place cookies on your device. The difference between a first party cookie and a third party cookie relates to the control of the party who serves the cookie. A first party cookie is a cookie set by the Website or domain you are visiting. A third party cookie is set by a domain other than the one you are visiting, operated by a separate company (not by us). While we may allow third parties to access the website to place these cookies on users’ devices, we do not retain control over the information supplied by the cookies, nor do we retain access to that data. This information is controlled wholly by that third party and subject to their privacy notice.

Cookies are further categorized as follows:

• Strictly necessary cookies: Strictly necessary cookies are required to browse our Websites and use certain Website features. If you disable strictly necessary cookies, the functionality of the Websites will be affected. Where applicable, the legal basis for the collection of information through the use of strictly necessary cookies is legitimate interests of us or third party service providers that help us operate the Websites. More information on the balancing test supporting our legitimate interests is available upon request.
  
  
• Functional cookies: Functional cookies enable us to store the selections and settings made by you (for example, your country or account preferences). If you disable these cookies, the functionality of the Websites may be affected. Where applicable, the legal basis for the collection of information through functionality cookies is your consent.
  
  
• Analytics and Advertising cookies: Analytics cookies allow us to collect information on how our Websites are used and the nature of our user base. This includes whether a user has visited the Websites previously, the overall Website usage, and areas that users prefer on the Websites. This allows us to improve the performance of the Websites and your experience. Advertising cookies provide us with some of the same information that we collect from analytics cookies, and also allow us to serve advertising about our education products to you that we believe may interest you after you have visited our Websites, and to measure the effectiveness of our advertising. If you disable such cookies you will not receive advertising based on your visits to our Websites. Where applicable, the legal basis for the collection of such information by analytics and advertising cookies is your consent.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Functional Cookies

Analytics Cookies

Advertising Cookies

We do not access or disclose your Personal Information except as noted at the time that we request it, when you choose to share your information in our Educator Network, or as listed below.

If you would like to review, correct, update or request that we delete Personal Information you have provided to us, please contact us at tiisupport@turnitin.com and specify what you would like to review, correct, update or have deleted.

We may engage with third parties to facilitate our delivery of our Websites and to provide certain features on our behalf, such as data hosting, analytics, content delivery, maintenance, email and marketing management, security and similar functions. These third parties may require a limited amount of information, including Personal Information, in order to deliver their services. 

We may also retain, use and share aggregated demographic information that is not linked or linkable to Personal Information for legally permissible purposes.

Our Websites contain links to third party websites, including social networking websites.  The fact that we link to a website is not an endorsement or representation of an affiliation with that website. We do not control third party websites or their privacy practices. These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. Other sites follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the personal information you submit to them. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit.

To the extent an “Educator Network” section appears on the Websites, you may read, comment and share blog posts within such section.  Any comments you post in this area may be read, collected and used by others.  You may also log onto third party social networking websites via social network sharing widgets to share, comment or recommend blog posts.  The social network sharing widgets may provide information to their associated social networks or third-parties about your interactions with our web pages that you visit, even if you do not click on or otherwise interact with the plug-in or widget. Information is transmitted from your browser and may include an identifier assigned by the social network or third party, information about your browser type, operating system, device type, IP address, and the URL of the web page where the widget appears. If you use social network tools or visit social networking sites, you should read their privacy policies to learn what information they collect, use, and share.

We implement commercially reasonable physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to help protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your Personal Information.  We host Personal Information in secure, cloud-based environments that use firewalls, encryption and other industry-standard technologies in an effort to prevent interference or access from outside intruders. The Internet, however, is not perfectly secure and we are not responsible for security breaches not reasonably within our control.

We also require unique account identifiers and passwords for our Educator Network that must be entered each time you sign into the Educator Network. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Educator Network user name and password. If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your account credentials or suspect a security breach, notify us at tiisupport@turnitin.com.

We retain Personal Information for as long as is necessary to provide you with access to our Websites or as long as is permissible under applicable law, including as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, comply with applicable industry standards, and protect the security of our Websites.

We may send you emails with information about our products that we believe may be of interest. You may opt out of receiving these email messages from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link found at the bottom of every email that we send or by contacting us at tiisupport@turnitin.com.

We do not send email messages on behalf of third parties.

California residents have certain rights with respect to their Personal Information, as described below. Before we may fulfill your requests, we are required by law to verify your identity in order to prevent unauthorized access to your data.

In the case of rights requests in relation to our Websites, this may require us to confirm your identity by asking you to verify certain information previously provided by you, or other methods as practicable.

Right to Know and Access Information: You may access Personal Information we maintain about you using the methods provided below. If we grant your request, we will provide you with a copy of the Personal Information we maintain about you in the ordinary course of business. This may include what Personal Information we collect, use, or disclose about you. We may not fulfill some or all of your request to access as permitted by applicable law. 

Deletion of Information: You may request that we delete your Personal Information. Depending on the scope of your request, we may refrain from granting your request, as permitted by applicable law. For example, we may be legally required to retain your Personal Information in our business records. You may submit a deletion request using the methods provided below .

Right to Opt Out of “Sale” of Personal Information: You may opt out of what California law considers to be the “sale” of your Personal Information, which for our Websites, means transfer of your Personal Information to certain third parties for their or for others’ commercial purposes, including advertising purposes. California residents may opt out of this practice by clicking on the “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” link available on the footer of our Websites and follow the instructions.  

Authorized Agent: California residents may use an authorized agent on their behalf to exercise a privacy right discussed above. If you are an authorized agent acting on behalf of a California resident to communicate with us or to exercise a privacy right, you must be able to demonstrate that you have the requisite authorization to act on behalf of the resident and have sufficient access to their laptop, desktop, or mobile device to exercise these rights digitally. If you are an authorized agent trying to exercise rights on behalf of a Turnitin user, please contact us at the contact information below with supporting verification information, which includes a valid Power of Attorney in the State of California, proof that you have access to the consumer’s interface, and proof of your own identify.

Website: To exercise the rights described above, please contact us using the information below. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding your California rights or this privacy policy, you may contact us using the contact information below.

• 2101 Webster St Ste 1900 Oakland CA. 94612 USA
• tiisupport@turnitin.com
• +1 866 816 5046 x241

Please note that your exercise of the above rights is subject to certain exemptions to safeguard the public interest (e.g., the prevention or detection of crime) and our interests (e.g., the maintenance of legal privilege). We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Requests to exercise these rights may be granted in whole, in part, or not at all, depending on the scope and nature of the request and applicable law. Where required by applicable law, we will notify you if we reject your request and notify you of any reasons we are unable to honor your request.

Non-discrimination: We shall not discriminate or otherwise penalize anyone for exercising their rights under this Privacy Policy.

If you are a resident of California, you may request certain information regarding our disclosure of Personal Information (if any) for marketing purposes.  To make such a request, please contact us at: Turnitin, LLC, 2101 Webster St., Suite 1900, Oakland, California 94612.

Additional Information for Users from the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (UK): If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that your Personal Information will be transferred to, processed and stored in the United States and Canada.

When you access our Websites, we function as a “data controller” under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). In some cases, we will ask for your consent so that we may process your personal information. In other circumstances, we may rely on a different lawful basis, as explained in the section, “How we Use and Disclose Your Personal Information.”

By submitting your Personal Information, you acknowledge that we may transfer, process and store your information in this way. Wherever the information is, it will be treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws of the United States. These laws may be different from the privacy laws in your country. However, this does not change our commitments to safeguard your privacy and we will comply with all applicable laws relating to the cross-border disclosure of your Personal Information. Where required, we will implement Standard Contractual Clauses with our third parties or rely on such other transfer mechanisms to ensure that the transfer of your Personal Information outside of your country is lawful. You may request details of the transfer mechanisms that we rely on to transfer personal information outside of your country by emailing us at tiisupport@turnitin.com.

Please note that the rules in your country may provide you with additional rights or may limit these rights.  In all cases, our provision of the rights will comply with the applicable laws.

If you are based in the EEA, for example, you may have the right to access, update or correct your Personal Information, to request deletion of such Personal Information, and to object to certain processing, including that related to marketing, to receive a machine-readable copy of the Personal Information concerning you that you provided to us or request us to transfer such data to an applicable third party in certain circumstances. 

In addition, where you provided your consent for our processing of your Personal Information, you may withdraw such consent by contacting us using the details provided in the “Contact” section. You may also restrict how we use your Personal Information while a complaint is being investigated. 

Your exercise of these rights is subject to certain exemptions to safeguard the public interest (e.g.  the prevention or detection of crime) and our interests (e.g., the maintenance of legal privilege). If you contact us to exercise any of these rights, we will verify your request and respond within thirty days.

As our Websites evolve, we may make changes to this Privacy Policy. We will alert you to changes by providing notice within the Website or otherwise as required by law. The “last updated” note at the top of this policy indicates when it was last revised, and updates will become effective when they are posted.  

If you have any concerns or complaints about how we handle your Personal Information, or if you have questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

2101 Webster St., Suite 1900
Oakland, California 94612
866 816 5046
legal@turnitin.com

If you have concerns or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy or our data handling procedures, you may have a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

Our Data Protection Officer may be reached at DPO@Turnitin.com.