Blackboard takes security and data privacy seriously and regularly looks for ways to make improvements. To improve the security stance for some institutions with specific scenarios of identity management, a change has been made to the way privacy settings are applied to directory information, specifically name and avatar.
This change is part of the Blackboard LMS September 2026 release (4001.0) and can potentially impact customers of the Blackboard Catalog premium solution--a marketplace for publishing courses, registering learners, and collecting payments.
Individual users now have greater control over directory data. This means an individual instructor can control publication of their profile in Blackboard Catalog using the data privacy settings in their profile page in Blackboard LMS. Instructors expecting to be listed in Blackboard Catalog should update their profile privacy setting to the option, “anyone on the platform.” This will grant Blackboard Catalog users who view a course offering the ability to read the instructor profile.
If instructors have a more restrictive data privacy setting selected, Blackboard Catalog will hide the instructor profile information.
Note: this change does not impact the older catalog functionality built into Blackboard LMS, only the premium Blackboard Catalog solution.