Privacy and data usage
Built for trusted facility-based research operations.
Mycel exists to help labs share infrastructure, coordinate access, and make research operations easier to run. That only works if data is handled with restraint: collect what is needed, keep facility boundaries clear, aggregate carefully, and make responsibilities understandable.
Last updated: May 29, 2026
This page explains the shared responsibility model between Mycel, licensed facility owners, and users. It is written for POPIA-aligned processing in South Africa and for practical lab operations.
At a glance
What we handle
Account, access, booking, training, usage, safety, support, and communication records needed to run shared facilities.
Why we handle it
To provide the service, protect facilities, support users, meet operational obligations, and improve reliability.
Who controls records
Licensed facility owners control the operational records for their facility. Mycel operates and supports the service.
Your choices
You can ask for access, correction, deletion, or communication changes, subject to safety, audit, legal, and institutional requirements.
Roles
Who is responsible for what
Licensed facility owners are the organisations, labs, or networks responsible for a Mycel-powered facility. They decide who may join, what information is required for access, how bookings and training are managed, and how long operational records must be retained for safety, audit, billing, or institutional requirements.
Mycel provides and supports the service. Mycel does not independently collect user information for unrelated purposes, and it does not use facility data to build individual user profiles. Where Mycel processes user or operational information, it does so to operate, secure, maintain, improve, and support the service.
Users should expect authorised facility administrators to see information needed to run the lab, including profile, access, booking, training, usage, and support records for that facility.
Data collected
Information handled by the service
Identity and access
Name, email address, role, facility membership, lab-area permissions, access requests, approval history, and account status.
Lab operations
Bookings, session records, equipment usage, machine authorisations, training status, maintenance interactions, material requests, and operational notes.
Safety and audit
Security events, administrative changes, policy acknowledgements, access logs, support actions, and records needed to investigate incidents.
Support and contact
Feedback, questions, contact messages, service context, technical information needed to operate and secure the service, and replies exchanged with authorised Mycel personnel.
Communications
How we may contact users
Mycel and licensed facility owners may send communications that are reasonably needed to operate the service and the facility. These may include account notices, booking reminders, access and approval updates, training and safety notices, service records, maintenance messages, support responses, policy updates, and security alerts.
Communications may be sent through email, in-service notifications, phone, SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, or similar channels where the channel is enabled, requested, consented to, or otherwise appropriate for the operational purpose. Optional channels can be changed or disabled where the service, facility process, or applicable law allows.
Some essential communications cannot be fully disabled while a user has an active account or an active facility relationship, because they are necessary for access, safety, security, booking administration, auditability, or support.
Boundaries
Restricted around each licensed facility
Mycel is designed around clear facility boundaries. Users, labs, machines, bookings, training records, and operational workflows belong to the licensed facility that is responsible for them. Administrators should only access information they need to run that facility.
If network features are enabled, sharing beyond a facility is limited to approved workflows. Discovery and network reporting are designed to avoid exposing individual user records outside their facility unless the service explicitly asks for authorisation and the licensed facility owner approves the action.
Experimental content, notebook content, session notes, and research context are not shared outside the facility by default.
Aggregation
What Mycel may aggregate
Mycel may aggregate limited operational information to understand whether the service is healthy, useful, and improving access to shared infrastructure. Aggregated information is not intended to identify a specific user.
Mycel does not sell personal information. Aggregation is used to improve facility operations, strengthen service reliability, detect abuse, support compliance and audits, guide service decisions, and support the mission of making specialised research infrastructure easier to find, book, and sustain.
POPIA-forward
Rights, retention, and lawful handling
Mycel and licensed facility owners should process personal information for clear operational purposes: access control, bookings, safety, training, billing where enabled, communications, support, auditability, security, legal compliance, abuse prevention, integration operation, and service improvement.
Users may request access, correction, or deletion of personal information through their facility owner or lab administrator. Some records may need to be retained where safety, audit, incident response, financial, legal, or institutional obligations require it.
Service access is restricted to authorised roles. Access by Mycel personnel is operational only and should be limited to support requests, maintenance, security investigations, reliability work, compliance support, authorised integrations, and incident response.
Contact
Questions or requests
For account data, lab access, booking history, training records, or deletion requests, start with your facility owner or lab administrator. They control the operational records for your facility.
For Mycel-level privacy questions, service support, or concerns about how Mycel handles aggregated information, send the Mycel team a message.