Privacy Policy
Effective Date: 1 October 2026
Global Institute For Skills And Excellence Africa ("GISE Africa," "we," "us," or "our") runs the learning platform at giseafrica.com and the courses, cohorts and services offered through it (together, the "Services"). This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we store and protect it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over it.
We handle personal data in line with the Kenya Data Protection Act, 2019 and its regulations. Where you use the Services from another country, we also respect the rights your local law gives you.
By creating an account or using the Services, you confirm you have read this policy. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the Services.
1. Who Is Responsible for Your Data
GISE Africa is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. This means we decide why and how your data is processed and are accountable for it.
Contact: [email protected] · +254 727 427839 · Bimz Plaza, CFSK road, Utawala, Nairobi, Kenya
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Information You Give Us
| When | What we collect |
|---|---|
| Creating an account | First and last name, email address, phone number, password (stored only as a one-way hash, never in readable form), and whether you are joining as a learner or a mentor. |
| Your profile | Profile photo, time zone, and display settings you choose. |
| Verifying your email or resetting your password | Your email address and the one-time code we send to it. Email verification is optional for learners. |
| Registering for a course | The course and cohort you choose, whether you add software licences, and the fee quoted to you. |
| Paying | Your payment is taken by our payment provider, Paystack (see Section 5). We receive a payment reference, the amount, currency, status, payment channel (for example card or mobile money) and, for cards, only the card type, issuing bank and last four digits. |
| Learning | Lessons you complete, your progress through each module, quiz and exam answers, scores and results, and certificates issued to you. |
| Reviews | Star ratings and written reviews you choose to leave on a course. |
| Requesting a brochure | Your name, email address and phone number, and the course (and cohort, if chosen) you asked about. |
| Contacting us | Your name, email address, the subject and your message. |
| Applying as a mentor | See Section 2.2. |
2.2 Additional Information from Mentors
If you apply to mentor on GISE Africa, we also collect:
- Identity and qualification documents: a National ID or passport, your CV, and your academic certificates.
- Professional details: your bio, areas of expertise, and your application message for each cohort you apply to mentor.
- Course materials you upload, such as course content PDFs, brochures and module slides, and the course changes you propose.
We use this information to check your identity and your fit for the cohort, and to publish approved course material. Our Mentor Policy explains this in more detail.
2.3 Information Collected Automatically
- Session and device data: When you sign in, we keep a record of your session, including your IP address, browser type and the time of your last activity. This keeps your account secure and lets you stay signed in.
- Server logs: Our servers and our network provider, Cloudflare, record technical information such as IP addresses, requested pages, dates and times, and error details. We use these logs to keep the Services running and secure.
- Cookies and browser storage: We use a small number of essential cookies and your browser's local storage (for example, to remember recently viewed courses). See our Cookie Policy.
We do not currently use third-party analytics, advertising trackers, or social media pixels.
2.4 Information About Others
If you give us someone else's details, for example when a parent registers a child or a colleague requests a brochure for you, you must have their permission to do so.
3. How We Use Your Information
| Purpose | Examples | Lawful basis (Kenya DPA s.30) |
|---|---|---|
| Providing the Services | Creating your account, registering you in a cohort, giving you access to lessons, tracking your progress, marking quizzes and exams, issuing certificates | Performance of our contract with you |
| Payments | Confirming payments with Paystack, keeping payment records, handling refunds | Contract; legal obligation (tax and accounting records) |
| Communicating with you | Registration confirmations, cohort updates, in-app notifications, password reset codes, replies to your messages | Contract; legitimate interest |
| Brochures and course enquiries | Sending you the brochure you requested after our team approves the request, and following up about that course | Your consent, given when you submit the request |
| Reviewing mentors | Checking identity documents, qualifications and fit for a cohort; approving course materials | Legitimate interest in keeping teaching quality and learner safety high; contract |
| Safety and security | Preventing fraud, keeping audit logs of administrator actions, investigating misuse | Legitimate interest; legal obligation |
| Improving the Services | Understanding which courses and features are used so we can improve them | Legitimate interest |
| Marketing | News about new courses and cohorts | Your consent. You can unsubscribe at any time. |
| Legal compliance | Responding to lawful requests, keeping records the law requires | Legal obligation |
3.1 Automated Decisions
Some parts of the Services work automatically. For example, module quizzes are marked automatically, and the next module unlocks when you meet the pass mark. These decisions affect only your progress within a course. If you believe an automatic result is wrong, contact us and a member of our team will review it.
4. What Others Can See
- Mentors: approved mentors' names, titles, bios and photos appear publicly on the courses they teach.
- Reviews: ratings and reviews you leave may be shown on the course page.
- Within a cohort: the mentors and administrators of your cohort can see your name, progress and results so they can support you.
- Everything else, including your email, phone number, payment details, exam answers and any identity documents, is visible only to you and to authorised GISE Africa staff who need it for their role.
5. How We Share Your Information
We do not sell your personal data. We share it only in the following cases:
5.1 Service Providers
| Provider | What they do | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Paystack | Processes course payments | Your email address, the amount, and the payment details you enter on Paystack's checkout page. Paystack is PCI-DSS certified and is an independent controller of the card and mobile money details you give it. See paystack.com/terms. |
| Cloudflare | Secures and delivers our website | Technical data such as IP address and requested pages |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Hosts our servers and stores our database and uploaded files | All platform data, held under contract. See aws.amazon.com/privacy. |
| Zoho | Sends and receives our emails, including registration, password reset and brochure emails, and the messages you send to [email protected] | Your name, email address and the content of the emails. See zoho.com/privacy. |
Our providers may only use your data to provide their service to us, and must protect it.
5.2 Mentors and Staff
Your cohort's mentors and our administrators can see the learner information they need to teach and support you (see Section 4).
5.3 Legal Requirements
We may disclose information if the law requires it, if a court or authority lawfully requests it, or where it is needed to protect the rights, safety or property of our learners, staff or the public.
5.4 Business Changes
If GISE Africa merges, is acquired or reorganises, your data may be transferred to the new entity. It will remain protected by this policy, and we will tell you before any change to how it is used.
5.5 With Your Consent
We will share your information for any other purpose only with your consent. An example is sharing your certificate with an employer at your request.
6. Where Your Data Is Stored
Our servers, database and uploaded files are hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), in the AWS region we have chosen for the Services. GISE Africa controls and manages this environment, and AWS processes the data only to provide hosting to us. Some of our providers (such as AWS, Cloudflare and Paystack) may process data outside Kenya. When data leaves Kenya, we rely on the safeguards required by sections 48 to 50 of the Data Protection Act. These include providers' contractual commitments and, where required, your consent.
7. How Long We Keep Your Data
We keep personal data only as long as we need it:
| Data | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Account and profile | While your account is open, and for 2 years after it is closed or last used, then deleted or anonymised |
| Learning records (progress, results, certificates) | While your account is open. Certificate records (name, course, certificate number and date) are kept for 10 years so we can confirm certificates to employers and institutions. |
| Payment records | 7 years, to meet tax and accounting laws |
| Mentor identity documents and CV | While you are an active mentor, and for 12 months afterwards. Unsuccessful applications: 6 months after the decision. |
| Brochure requests | 12 months after the request |
| Contact form messages | 24 months after we reply |
| Session records and server logs | Up to 90 days, unless needed to investigate a security incident |
| Administrator audit logs | 5 years |
When a retention period ends, we delete the data or anonymise it so it can no longer identify you.
8. How We Protect Your Data
- All traffic to and from the Services is encrypted with HTTPS (TLS).
- Data is held in our AWS hosting environment, which has its own physical and network security. Access to it is limited to authorised GISE Africa staff.
- Passwords are hashed and never stored in readable form. Our staff cannot see your password.
- Access is based on roles: learners, mentors, administrators and super administrators each see only what their role needs. Administrator actions are logged.
- Mentor identity documents are available only to the mentor and to authorised administrators.
- Paystack handles card and mobile money details on its own checkout page. They never pass through or are stored on our servers.
- We review new course material and mentor applications before they go live.
No online service can be completely secure. If a breach affects your personal data and is likely to put you at risk, we will notify you without unnecessary delay, tell you what happened and what you can do to protect yourself, and report it to the authorities where the law requires.
9. Children and Young Learners
Many of our O-Level and A-Level learners are under 18. Under the Data Protection Act, we process a child's personal data only with the consent of a parent or guardian and only in the child's best interests. Our Learner Data & Children's Privacy Policy explains how this works.
10. Your Rights
Under the Kenya Data Protection Act, you have the right to:
- Be informed about how your data is used, which is the purpose of this policy
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete
- Delete data that is no longer needed, or that is held without a lawful basis, subject to the records we must keep by law (Section 7)
- Object to processing, including direct marketing
- Restrict processing while a concern is being resolved
- Data portability: receive your data in a common, machine-readable format
- Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on it, without affecting processing that has already happened
- Not be subject to a purely automated decision that significantly affects you
You can update most of your details yourself in your dashboard. To exercise any other right, email [email protected] from your account email with the subject "Data Request". We may need to confirm your identity. We will respond within 30 days.
11. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please email [email protected] with the subject "Privacy Complaint". We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and send a written response within 30 days.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy when our Services or the law change. If we make significant changes, we will tell you by email or through the Services before they take effect. The effective date at the top shows when the policy was last updated.
13. Contact Us
Global Institute For Skills And Excellence Africa (GISE Africa)
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +254 727 427839
Address: Bimz Plaza, CFSK road, Utawala, Nairobi, Kenya