Answers
Whether you can legally license your company's data.
Three questions decide it. Owners can usually answer the first two themselves, and the third is handled before anything moves.
Question one. Do you own it?
A company holds two kinds of material that sit side by side and look the same.
The first is its own operating record, generated in the course of its own work, and it belongs to the company. The second is material held on behalf of a client, usually under a master agreement that assigns ownership to the client. That second kind cannot be licensed regardless of value.
Only the contracts separate them. This is the single most common reason a promising record turns out to be unsaleable, and it is worth resolving before anything else.
Question two. What do your customer agreements say?
Master agreements, terms of use, and data processing addenda often contain restrictions on use and disclosure that reach further than owners remember.
The relevant clauses are usually about confidentiality, permitted purpose, and whether anything can be used in aggregated or de-identified form. Many agreements expressly allow the last of these, which is the door most licensing deals go through.
Question three. Can personal information be removed?
Privacy regimes govern personal information rather than business records as such. An operating record with identifying material stripped out sits in a different category from one that carries it.
This is why anonymization happens before anything moves. It is not a courtesy. No buyer with regulatory exposure will accept a record carrying personal information, so removing it is what makes the record usable in the first place.
In a Polyshares deal this is our responsibility rather than yours.
This page describes how these transactions are ordinarily structured. It is not legal advice, and a company should have its own counsel review any license before signing.
Questions
Questions about rights and compliance.
Is it legal to sell your company's data?
Licensing a company's own operating record is a normal commercial transaction. What determines whether a specific record can be licensed is ownership, what the company's customer contracts say, and whether personal information can be removed. This is a description of how these deals are structured and it is not legal advice.
Who owns the data a company holds?
Material the company generated in the course of its own work is normally the company's. Material held on behalf of a client under a master agreement usually belongs to that client. The two look identical sitting in the same drive, and only the contracts separate them.
Do I need customer consent?
It depends on what the record contains and what your agreements say. Once identifying information is removed, much of an operating record is no longer personal information at all. Where customer material is involved, the governing contract is the first place to look.
What about privacy law?
Privacy regimes govern personal information rather than business records as such. This is why identifying fields are stripped before anything moves. It protects the seller, and no buyer with compliance obligations would accept a record carrying personal information in any case.
Does licensing data make my company a data broker?
Data broker registration regimes are aimed at businesses that collect and sell personal information about individuals they have no relationship with. A company licensing its own anonymized operating record is a different activity. Because the definitions vary by state, a company should confirm its own position with counsel.
Who handles this in a Polyshares deal?
We handle anonymization, and the license is papered with scope and permitted use written in. Confirming ownership is the one part that starts with the company, because only you hold your customer contracts.
Inquiries
Speak with a Managing Partner.
Five questions tell us whether there is a market for what your company holds. You will get a straight answer either way.
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