Data licensing guide
Data licensing guide

Who owns your company data? Staff, contractors and clients

By Ade Molajo · Updated · How we check figures

Quick answer

Usually the company owns work its employees create as part of their job. Contractors' work belongs to the company only if their contract assigns it. Client material usually stays the client's, or is held under confidentiality. Personal data isn't owned by anyone in the usual sense: you hold it under data protection law. Check contracts before you license anything.

Employees
work in their job: usually the company's
Contractors
only if the contract assigns it
Clients'
material: usually theirs
Personal data
is held, not owned

Every programme needs records you own and control, and the licence will usually ask you to promise you do. So check before you scope anything.

Who owns a record: work your staff created in their employment usually belongs to the company; contractor work only if the contract assigns it; material from clients usually remains theirs or is held under confidentiality.YesYesNoNoMade by your ownpeople?Employees, as part oftheir job?Usually the company’sContractor: only ifassignedClient or third party:usually theirs
General rules of thumb, not legal advice. Contracts decide.

01Employees

Work your employees create as part of their job usually belongs to the company. That covers most SOPs, playbooks, tickets and internal documents. Check employment contracts for anything unusual.

02Contractors and freelancers

Their work usually belongs to them unless the contract assigns it to you. Look for an assignment of intellectual property clause before licensing anything a contractor produced.

03Clients

Material you received from clients, or made for them, is often theirs under the contract, or held under confidentiality. Leave it out, or get the client's agreement. See the industry pages for law, accounting and consulting.

04Personal data

Nobody owns personal data in the usual sense. You hold it under UK GDPR, which decides what you can do with it. See our UK GDPR guide.

05Licensing keeps your ownership

Licensing versus selling outright: under a licence you keep ownership and grant agreed use of an agreed copy; in an outright sale the rights pass to the buyer. Most AI data programmes license.LicenceOutright saleOwnershipYou keep itPasses to the buyerWhat changes handsPermission to use an agreed copy, foragreed purposesThe data and the rights in itWhat to readUse, exclusivity, term, resale,deletionEverything: you can’t take it back
Most programmes license. The licence terms matter more than the word “sell”.

Licensing doesn't transfer ownership: micro1, for example, says companies retain ownership of their underlying data. This isn't legal advice.

06Check whether you're likely to match

Our free fit check asks about your size, location, records and tools, then shows which programmes you're likely to match. The programme decides.

07Questions people ask

Does a company own its employees' work?

Generally, work created by employees in the course of their employment belongs to the employer. Contracts can change that, so check them.

What about freelancers and contractors?

Their work usually stays theirs unless the contract assigns it to you. Check before licensing anything they made.

Sources

Check which programmes you’re likely to matchA few short questions, about a minute. Free, no sign-up. The programme decides who qualifies.trackimpact.io/data →