Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 30 September 2026

StepMerit Learning (“StepMerit”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the personal information of learners, customers, corporate clients, trainers, partners, website visitors, and other individuals who interact with our services.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect personal information when you access the StepMerit website, create an account, submit an enquiry, register for training, purchase a course, participate in an examination or certification, communicate with us, or otherwise use our services.

1. Information We Collect

Depending on how you interact with StepMerit, we may collect:

Personal and Contact Information

• Full name
• Email address
• Telephone/mobile number
• Country and city
• Postal or billing address
• Company or organisation
• Job title or professional information

Account Information

• Login information
• Account preferences
• Booking history
• Course registrations
• Certificates and training records
• Feedback and reviews

Passwords are intended to be stored using appropriate security and hashing mechanisms rather than as readable passwords.

Booking and Transaction Information

• Course selected
• Training dates and delivery method
• Participant information
• Order and invoice information
• Coupon or promotional code
• Transaction/payment status

Where payments are processed through a third-party payment provider, payment card or banking information may be processed directly by that provider. StepMerit does not intend to store complete card information unless specifically required and permitted by applicable law and payment-security requirements.

Certification and Examination Information

For courses involving certification or examinations, we may collect information required to register learners with the applicable examination institute, certification body, accreditation organisation, or authorised testing provider.

Technical and Usage Information

When you use our website, we may automatically collect information including:

• IP address
• Browser type
• Device type
• Operating system
• Referring website
• Pages visited
• Date and time of visits
• Website interactions
• Approximate geographical location
• Cookie and analytics identifiers

This information helps us operate, secure, analyse, personalise, and improve our website and services.

2. IP-Based Country and City Detection

StepMerit may use an IP address or similar technical information to estimate a visitor's country and city.

This functionality may be used to:

• Automatically select the appropriate country or city
• Display locally relevant course information
• Display appropriate currencies or pricing
• Present relevant training schedules
• Provide country- or city-specific pages
• Improve website navigation and user experience
• Analyse website traffic and geographic demand

IP-based geolocation provides an approximate location and may not always identify the visitor's actual location accurately.

3. How We Use Personal Information

We may process personal information to:

• Respond to enquiries
• Recommend relevant courses
• Create and maintain learner accounts
• Process registrations and bookings
• Process payments and issue invoices
• Deliver classroom, virtual, online, and corporate training
• Provide course materials
• Register candidates for examinations
• Issue or facilitate certificates
• Provide customer and technical support
• Manage corporate training requirements
• Communicate schedule or venue changes
• Send joining instructions
• Manage trainers and training delivery
• Maintain training and certification records
• Collect course feedback and reviews
• Detect fraud, misuse, and security incidents
• Improve website performance
• Conduct analytics and reporting
• Personalise website content
• Meet contractual and legal obligations

Where permitted by applicable law and based on your communication preferences, we may also inform you about relevant courses, offers, events, certification opportunities, and other StepMerit services.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Depending on your country and the circumstances, StepMerit may process personal information based on one or more appropriate legal grounds, including:

Contractual necessity: Processing necessary to provide a course, examination, certification, booking, or other service you have requested.

Consent: Where you have expressly agreed to particular processing, such as certain marketing communications.

Legitimate interests: Where processing is reasonably necessary for operating and improving our business and services, provided those interests do not override applicable privacy rights.

Legal obligations: Where information must be processed or retained to comply with applicable laws, taxation, accounting, regulatory requirements, court orders, or lawful government requests.

5. Course Enquiries and Contact Forms

When you submit a course enquiry, callback request, corporate training enquiry, trainer application, partnership request, meeting request, or another website form, StepMerit may use the information you provide to respond to that specific request.

Where marketing consent is required, StepMerit should provide a separate and clearly identifiable marketing preference rather than treating an enquiry as automatic consent to unrelated marketing.

6. Training, Examination and Certification Partners

Some StepMerit courses may include examinations, certifications, laboratories, courseware, or services delivered by third-party organisations.

Where necessary to provide a service you have purchased or requested, we may provide relevant information to:

• Examination institutes
• Certification bodies
• Accreditation organisations
• Courseware providers
• Laboratory providers
• Training partners
• Authorised testing providers

Only information reasonably necessary for delivering the applicable service should be shared.

7. Corporate and Group Training

For corporate or group bookings, information may be provided to StepMerit by an employer, organisation, booking coordinator, or authorised representative.

We may process participant information for purposes such as:

• Registration
• Attendance management
• Course delivery
• Examination registration
• Certification
• Training administration
• Reporting to the organisation where appropriate and permitted

8. Cookies and Similar Technologies

StepMerit may use cookies and similar technologies to operate and improve its website.

Cookies may be used for:

• Essential website functionality
• User authentication
• Shopping cart and booking functionality
• Remembering preferences
• Website security
• Analytics
• Performance measurement
• Marketing measurement
• Personalisation

Where required by applicable law, non-essential cookies will be used based on the visitor's consent.

Users can also manage cookies through their browser settings, although disabling essential cookies may affect website functionality.

9. Analytics and Google Services

StepMerit may use services such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Search Console and related technologies to understand website performance and visitor interaction.

Information collected through analytics technologies may include device information, approximate location, referral source, pages viewed, interactions, and session information.

Where required, StepMerit will provide appropriate cookie and consent controls for analytics and advertising technologies.

10. Social Media and Third-Party Platforms

Our website may provide links or integrations involving services such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, Google, and other third-party platforms.

When you interact with a third-party service, that provider may process information according to its own privacy policy.

StepMerit does not control the independent privacy practices of third-party websites or platforms.

11. Google or Third-Party Login

StepMerit may allow users to register or sign in using Google or another supported identity provider.

When such functionality is used, we may receive limited account information authorised by the user, such as name, email address, profile identifier, or profile image.

We use this information for authentication, account creation, account security, and providing requested services.

12. Marketing Communications

Subject to applicable law, StepMerit may communicate information regarding:

• New courses
• Upcoming training schedules
• Certification programmes
• Promotional offers
• Combo offers
• Group discounts
• Events and webinars
• Related professional-development services

Users may unsubscribe from promotional emails using the unsubscribe option provided in applicable communications or by contacting StepMerit.

Service communications concerning an existing booking, payment, examination, account, or certification may still be sent where necessary.

13. Information Sharing

StepMerit does not sell personal information as part of its normal business model.

We may disclose information where reasonably necessary to:

• Provide purchased services
• Process payments
• Register examinations or certifications
• Operate our website and CRM
• Provide hosting, email, analytics, customer-support or technology services
• Fulfil contractual obligations
• Prevent fraud or security threats
• Comply with applicable law or legal proceedings

Third-party service providers should only receive information necessary for their authorised functions and should be subject to appropriate privacy and security obligations.

14. International Data Transfers

StepMerit provides services to learners and organisations across multiple countries.

Consequently, information may sometimes be processed or transferred outside the country where it was originally collected.

Where applicable privacy laws require safeguards for international transfers, StepMerit will use appropriate contractual, organisational, technical, or other legally recognised safeguards.

15. Data Security

StepMerit uses reasonable administrative, organisational, and technical safeguards designed to protect personal information against:

• Unauthorised access
• Accidental loss
• Misuse
• Alteration
• Disclosure
• Destruction

Security measures may include encryption, secure authentication, access controls, backups, monitoring, restricted administrative privileges, and other appropriate controls.

However, no internet transmission or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

16. Data Retention

StepMerit retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or as required for legitimate business, contractual, accounting, taxation, certification, dispute-resolution, security, or legal purposes.

Different information may therefore have different retention periods.

Information that is no longer reasonably required should be securely deleted, anonymised, or otherwise handled according to applicable retention requirements.

17. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live and applicable data-protection legislation, you may have rights concerning your personal information, including the right to:

• Request access to personal information
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Request deletion where legally applicable
• Request restriction of certain processing
• Object to certain processing
• Withdraw consent where processing depends on consent
• Request portability where applicable
• Opt out of certain marketing communications
• Raise a complaint with an applicable data-protection authority

Certain rights may be subject to legal exceptions or verification requirements.

18. Children's Privacy

StepMerit's professional training services are primarily intended for adults and organisations.

Where services are offered to individuals below the applicable age of consent, StepMerit will seek to apply appropriate safeguards and obtain parental or guardian authorisation where required by applicable law.

We do not knowingly seek to collect unnecessary personal information from children.

19. Links to Other Websites

StepMerit may provide links to examination institutes, certification organisations, payment providers, social networks, partner organisations, or other external websites.

External websites operate independently and may maintain their own privacy policies. Users should review those policies before providing personal information.

20. Reviews and Testimonials

Learners may have an opportunity to provide ratings, reviews, or testimonials.

Where StepMerit wishes to publish personally identifiable testimonial information on its website or marketing channels, appropriate permission should be obtained where required.

Submission of private course feedback does not automatically mean that the feedback will be publicly displayed with personally identifiable information.

21. CRM and Customer Records

Information submitted through StepMerit's website may be stored within StepMerit's customer relationship management systems for legitimate purposes including:

• Enquiry management
• Customer support
• Course registration
• Order processing
• Invoice management
• Learner administration
• Certification management
• Corporate training management
• Communication history
• Service improvement

Access should be restricted to authorised personnel according to their roles and responsibilities.

22. Payment Security

Online payments may be handled by authorised third-party payment gateways.

StepMerit aims to minimise the storage of sensitive payment credentials and relies on appropriate payment providers to securely process applicable transactions.

Users should review the privacy and security terms of the applicable payment provider when completing a transaction.

23. Changes to This Privacy Policy

StepMerit may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect:

• Changes to our services
• New website functionality
• New technology integrations
• Changes to applicable laws
• Changes to business processes
• Security and privacy improvements

The latest version will be published on the StepMerit website with an updated revision date.

Where legally required, we may provide additional notice regarding material changes.

24. Contact StepMerit

Questions, requests, or concerns relating to privacy or personal information may be submitted through the official StepMerit contact channels.

StepMerit Learning
Website: stepmerit.com
Email: support@stepmerit.com

When submitting a privacy request, please provide sufficient information for StepMerit to verify the request and identify the relevant records.

Privacy Commitment

StepMerit Learning is committed to handling personal information responsibly, transparently, and securely while providing professional training, certification, and learning services to individuals and organisations worldwide.