Metaverse Global Institute, home

Metaverse Global Institute

Request a quote

Privacy notice

How Metaverse Global Institute collects, uses and keeps personal information.

Last updated 9 October 2026

This notice explains how Metaverse Global Institute (Pty) Ltd (MGI) collects, uses, shares and protects personal information, in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA). It covers our website, our training and assessment services, our research and advisory work, and our offices in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

1. Who is responsible for your information

MGI is the responsible party for the personal information described in this notice, except for research projects carried out for clients (section 6).

  • Head office
    TheHub@256 Office Park, 256 Rondebult Road, Parkdene, Boksburg, South Africa
  • UK office
    Bedford Heights, Brickhill Drive, Bedford MK41 7PH, United Kingdom
  • Email
    engage@metaglobal.co.za
  • Phone
    +27 82 539 1397 (South Africa) and +44 7366 890063 (United Kingdom)

Our information officer deals with privacy questions, requests and complaints. Email engage@metaglobal.co.za with “Privacy” in the subject line.

2. What we collect

  • Enquiries and quote requests. Your name, job title, organisation, country, email address, phone or WhatsApp number, the courses or services you are interested in, the number of delegates, preferred dates and venue, whether delegates need help with accommodation, the documents you need, and your message.
  • Delegates and learners. Your name, contact details, employer, job title, attendance, assessment results and certificates. For QCTO qualifications and learnerships we also collect your identity or passport number, date of birth, highest qualification, and the demographic details (such as race, gender and disability) that QCTO and SETA registration and reporting require.
  • International delegates. Passport details, nationality and travel dates when you ask for a visa invitation letter or help with accommodation.
  • Clients and suppliers. Contact names, roles, billing addresses, tax numbers, quotes, invoices and payment records.
  • Research and advisory projects. Survey answers, interview notes and related information collected for a client project (section 6).
  • Feedback and messages. Course evaluations, and the emails, WhatsApp messages and call notes you send us.
  • Website. Our website does not use advertising or analytics cookies. Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, including IP addresses and browser details, for security. To block spam, the quote form keeps a coded version of your IP address for one hour. Links to WhatsApp, Facebook and Google take you to those services, and their own privacy policies apply.

Most of this information comes from you. Some comes from your employer when it books you on a course, from a SETA or partner provider when you join a learnership, or from a client that commissions a research project.

3. Why we use it

  • To answer enquiries and prepare quotes and proposals.
  • To deliver training and assessments, issue certificates, and keep records so certificates can be verified.
  • To register learners with, and report to, the QCTO, SETAs and assessment quality partners.
  • To send attendance and results to the employer that booked and paid for the training.
  • To arrange visa invitation letters, venues and accommodation.
  • To invoice, collect payment and keep financial records.
  • To carry out research and advisory projects for clients.
  • To improve our courses using your feedback.
  • To send news about our courses and services, within the limits in section 9.
  • To meet our legal obligations and keep our systems and website secure.

We process personal information only where POPIA allows it, for example to conclude or carry out a contract with you or your employer, to comply with the law, to protect a legitimate interest, or with your consent.

4. Do you have to give us this information?

No, but we need some of it to help you. Without the required fields on the quote form we cannot reply or quote. Without the details that the QCTO and SETAs require, we cannot register you for a qualification or learnership, and you may not receive a certificate, because skills development and qualifications legislation requires those details.

5. Special personal information and children

Race and disability details are special personal information under POPIA. We collect them only where skills development, B-BBEE or employment equity reporting requires it, or with your consent, and we limit who can see them. If you tell us about a health condition or dietary need so that we can support you during training, we use it only for that purpose.

Our services are for adults. If a learner is under 18, we need the consent of a parent or guardian.

6. Research and advisory projects

When a client commissions a survey, evaluation or other study, we usually process participants’ information on the client’s behalf, as an operator under POPIA. The client remains responsible for that information, and its own privacy notice applies. We explain each project to participants before they take part, use their answers only for that project, report results in summary form unless participants agree otherwise, and return or delete the data when the project ends, as our contract with the client sets out.

7. Who we share it with

  • Your employer, when it booked or paid for your training.
  • The QCTO, SETAs, assessment quality partners and accredited partner providers, for registration, assessment and certification.
  • Venues, hotels and transport providers that you asked us to arrange.
  • Facilitators, assessors and moderators who work with us, under a duty of confidentiality.
  • Service providers that support our work, such as our website host, email and cloud providers, WhatsApp, our accountants and our bank.
  • Authorities such as SARS or the Information Regulator, when the law requires it.

We do not sell personal information. Service providers may use it only to provide their services to us.

8. Sending information outside South Africa

MGI works in 11 African countries and has an office in the United Kingdom, and some of our service providers store information outside South Africa. We send personal information across borders only where POPIA allows it, for example where the recipient is bound by law or by an agreement that gives protection similar to POPIA, where the transfer is needed to carry out a contract with you, or with your consent.

9. Course news and marketing

We send news about courses and services by email or WhatsApp only to people who have agreed to receive it, or to clients about services similar to those they have used. Every message tells you how to opt out, and opting out is free. You can also ask us to remove you at any time.

10. How long we keep it

  • Quote requests that do not lead to work are deleted from our website after 24 months.
  • Quotes, invoices and payment records are kept for seven years, as the Companies Act requires.
  • Training, assessment and certificate records are kept for as long as the QCTO, the relevant SETA or the assessment body requires, so that certificates can be verified.
  • Research data is kept for the period agreed with the client, then returned or deleted.
  • Marketing details are kept until you opt out.

When we no longer need information, we delete or destroy it, or remove the details that identify you.

11. How we protect it

We limit access to staff who need it, protect our systems with passwords and access controls, use encrypted connections on our website, and require service providers to keep information secure and confidential. If we believe that someone has accessed your personal information without authority, we will tell the Information Regulator and you, as POPIA requires.

12. Your rights

  • Ask whether we hold personal information about you, and ask for a copy of it.
  • Ask us to correct or delete information that is wrong, out of date or incomplete, or that we are no longer allowed to keep.
  • Object to us using your information, including for direct marketing.
  • Withdraw your consent, where we rely on it.
  • Complain to the Information Regulator.

To make a request, email engage@metaglobal.co.za with “Privacy” in the subject line. We may ask you to confirm your identity first. Requests for copies of records are handled under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). Our PAIA manual explains the process and any fees, and we will send you a copy on request.

13. The Information Regulator

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal information, you may complain to the Information Regulator.

14. Our UK office

When our Bedford office handles your personal information, the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 also apply. We use your information for the purposes in section 3, relying on contract, legal obligation, legitimate interests or consent. You have the rights in section 12, together with the rights to restrict processing and to data portability, and you may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

15. Changes to this notice

We update this notice when our practices or the law change. The date at the top shows the current version.