Handle Profile Changes - opt out

@Kathy Hannon

I missed this item in the weekly release letter review; we should have included it. I'll be sure it's there next week. In the interim, here’s what you need to know:

People navigate lots of websites through their browser – Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, etc. In the browser settings, a user can enable a “global opt-out” setting that tells online websites 1) Don’t sell/share my information and 2) Don’t use my information for Targeted advertising.

How does one indicate a global opt-out preference in their browser? See: Global Privacy Control (GPC) for an example.

Our customers are the owners of their data; Blackbaud provides the solution/software that houses the data. US Privacy Law requires Blackbaud (as the Solution provider) to inform you (as the data owner) when a global opt-out signal exists in a user’s browser settings.

When a global opt-out setting is enabled in someone’s browser, the System updates their opt-out preference for both opt-out options – Sale of information and Targeted advertising. To catch all BEM users, we “listen” for the browser setting upon login, regardless of where the user initially lands behind the login.

• Yes or checked = don’t share their information or you (the data owner) will be in trouble.
• No or unchecked (default) = neither system nor user has indicated an opt-out preference.
• Once Yes is ever indicated by a browser, only a user can manually change it back to No (which is unlikely to happen). Later logins without the opt-out signal will not revert the setting.
  

You probably do not sell/share/engage in targeted advertising, and the Blackbaud privacy policy explains that we do not use your data that way, either. Don’t be alarmed by a No; Blackbaud isn’t performing any action based on the data in those fields! The opt-out fields are intended to be used by customers/data owners to determine whether your organization may sell or share your users’ information.

A couple more notes:

1. They don’t appear in Profile publish settings or in My Profile privacy settings for portal users. These fields are only visible to admins for the purpose of reporting Opt-outs.
2. We included the changes to the user’s profile change history as a way of determining whether this setting was applied by a person or by the System in response to that browser setting. (You'll see these appear the first time users log in with a browser where the setting is on.)
3. Here is our official documentation regarding US Privacy Law compliance for Blackbaud Education Management.

Thanks, @Jessi Walters! I know you said it wasn't included, but it looks like there wasn't a blog post for April 23, 2024 that included the What's New information. Is there another way to subscribe to it besides through the blog?

@Kim McAmis
Hey Kim! The issue with the What's New post has been resolved, so the April 23 posts should be live now.

Thank you, @Derek Nichols and @Bryna Gleich!