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Data readiness checker

Data readiness checker: is your data ready to license?

Twelve questions, drawn from the checks AI buyers run before they sign. You get a result and a list of the gaps to close, each linked to the guide that explains the fix.

In short

The data readiness checker tells you whether your company's records are ready to license to AI buyers. You answer 12 questions based on the eight checks in our seller vetting standard, covering ownership, client contracts, privacy notices, regulated data, third-party content, de-identification, authority to sign and export. The result is ready, nearly ready or not yet, with every gap linked to the guide that fixes it.

Key takeaways

The checker uses the eight checks in the Sell My Data To AI seller vetting standard, from authority to sign through to manifest accuracy.
Privacy questions start with US rules: the FTC on privacy promises, state laws such as the CCPA, and HIPAA, GLBA, FERPA and COPPA for regulated data. GDPR is covered for EU and UK records.
Answers that would stop a sale, such as client contracts that forbid reuse or records you cannot export, give a result of not yet until they are resolved.
Your answers stay in your browser and are never sent to us.

Check your readiness

Your answers stay in your browser. Nothing you choose here is sent to us or saved.

Do you own the records?
Records your own staff created while running the business. Not client-owned work product, and not data you bought, scraped or received under license.
- Yes, we created them ourselves
- Mostly, but some belong to clients or came from elsewhere
- Not sure
- No, most belong to clients or were bought in
Do staff and contractor agreements assign their work to the company?
Buyers check that the company, not individual staff or contractors, holds the rights in the work. Contractor agreements are where gaps usually appear.
- Yes, for staff and contractors
- For staff, but not every contractor
- Not sure
- We have no written agreements
Do client contracts restrict reuse of the records?
Confidentiality clauses, NDAs, data processing agreements and vendor terms can forbid disclosure, or any use beyond the original work.
- No, we have checked and they do not
- Some do, and we can exclude those clients' records
- We have not checked yet
- Yes, most of our work is under restrictive terms
Do you have a privacy notice that covers this use?
The FTC has warned that quietly adding AI training to a privacy policy may be unfair or deceptive. State privacy laws such as the CCPA also give consumers rights over the sale and sharing of their personal information.
- Not applicable, the records hold no personal information
- Yes, the notice in force when we collected the data covers it
- It does not mention it, so we will remove or de-identify personal information
- We have not checked
- Our notice promises not to share or sell customer data
Do the records include health, financial, student or children's data, or biometrics?
HIPAA covers patient health information, GLBA covers customer financial information held by financial institutions, FERPA covers student education records and COPPA covers children under 13. States such as Illinois regulate biometric identifiers.
- No
- Yes, and we will exclude it
- Yes, and we want to include it de-identified
- Not sure
Do any records concern people in the EU or UK?
If you hold data about people in the EU or UK, the GDPR or UK GDPR applies alongside US law, and you need a lawful basis to disclose their personal data for AI training.
- No
- Yes, and we will exclude those records
- Yes, and we want to include them
- Not sure
Do the records include content owned by others?
Licensed images, paid research, open-source code, vendor-generated data and platform exports can carry their own terms. Slack's API terms, for example, bar third-party apps from using API data to train large language models.
- No
- Yes, and we can find and remove it
- Not sure
Can you remove personal data and high-risk records by a documented method?
Buyers expect HR and payroll files, privileged legal advice and other companies' confidential material to be left out, and direct and indirect identifiers removed by a method that is tested on a sample.
- Yes, we have a method and have tested it
- We know what to remove but have no method yet
- Not sure what would need removing
Can the person signing bind the company?
A buyer will ask who is authorized to sign. Partnerships, companies with outside investors and closed companies often need extra approvals.
- Yes, and any approvals we need are in place
- We need board, partner or investor approval first
- The company has closed or is closing
- Not sure
How many years of records do you hold?
Buyers pay for completed work with known outcomes, so a longer history usually raises value.
- 5 years or more
- 3 to 5 years
- 1 to 3 years
- Under 1 year
Can you export the records?
Buyers expect a fixed, read-only export in standard formats such as JSON, CSV, EML or PDF, never live access to your systems.
- Yes, we have exported them before
- Probably, but we have not tried
- Only partly, some systems are hard to export
- No, the records are locked in a system we cannot export from
Do you know what you hold, system by system?
A data manifest lists each system, record counts, date ranges, formats, languages and exclusions. Buyers price from it, and the counts must match what is delivered.
- Yes, it is documented
- Roughly, but it is not written down
- No

Your readiness

Answer all 12 questions to see your result. You have answered 0.

This is a self-check, not a rights opinion. We are a broker, not a law firm. We tell you what buyers will check and help you prepare, but you should take independent legal advice before signing any license.

Get a free rights pre-check Build your data manifest

How the tool works

1
Each answer is marked as in place, to finish, a gap or a blocker.
2
Any blocker, or four or more gaps, gives a result of not yet. One to three gaps give nearly ready. No gaps gives ready.
3
Items to finish, such as running a test export, are listed separately and do not lower the result.
4
Every gap links to the guide that explains how to close it.

Frequently asked questions

What does the data readiness checker check?+

The data readiness checker asks 12 questions that map to the eight checks in our seller vetting standard: authority to sign, ownership and chain of title, contract restrictions, privacy notice and lawful basis, third-party content, de-identification method, representative sample and manifest accuracy. It adds questions on years of history and whether you can export the records, because both decide whether a buyer can make an offer.

What do ready, nearly ready and not yet mean?+

Ready means your answers show no open gaps, so the next step is a data manifest and a sample. Nearly ready means one to three gaps that should not stop a sale on their own but that buyers will ask about. Not yet means at least one answer would stop a sale until it is resolved, such as restrictive client contracts, or four or more open gaps.

Does a ready result mean I can legally sell my data?+

A ready result means you have answered the questions buyers ask without revealing a gap. It is not a legal opinion on your records. We are a broker, not a law firm. We tell you what buyers will check and help you prepare, but you should take independent legal advice before signing any license. Our guide to whether you can legally sell company data explains the laws involved.

Is anything I enter sent to Sell My Data To AI?+

Nothing you enter in the data readiness checker is sent to us or saved. The questions and the scoring run in your browser, and the result disappears when you leave or refresh the page. If you want us to look at your answers, request a free data valuation, which includes a rights pre-check.

Related guides

Can you legally sell company data for AI training?
Legal and compliance
How to sell your company's data to AI companies
Selling data
De-identification for AI training data
Legal and compliance
CCPA, state privacy laws and GDPR when selling data for AI
Legal and compliance

For data owners

Want a second pair of eyes?

A free valuation gives you a view of likely buyers, a realistic range and the rights issues to clear before a sale. Sellers pay nothing to be assessed.

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