Updated October 2026
Record retention and AI data licensing: two different clocks
You are checking how long you have to keep old records, and you have heard they might be worth licensing first. There are two clocks. Yours decides how long you must keep records, which is something to talk through with your accountant and the buyer you're working with. The buyer's decides how long it keeps the copy you license, and buyers say raw files are deleted within 30 to 60 days.1,2
Your clock
How long you keep records
How long you keep records depends on the record type, your industry and where you operate. Talk it through with your accountant or your own advisor, and ask the buyer you're working with to confirm nothing in the deal conflicts with what you must keep. Buyers that take only an agreed copy leave your originals where they are.3
What you license is a copy, and the originals stay in your systems: the AI Data page puts it as "One copy licensed, every original stays with you". Whether licensing a copy touches any retention duty is one of the questions to put to the licensing company.4
Their clock
How long the buyer keeps your copy
Buyers describe short windows for the raw files, from right after processing to about two months. The cleaned version is what trains models, and it is kept longer, sometimes with no way to delete it, so read what the agreement says.1,2,5,6,7
So ask three questions: how long do you keep the raw export, how long do you keep the cleaned copy, and what happens to both when the license ends? Get deletion confirmed in writing, and ask what happens to your data if the buyer is acquired or closes. Frankfurt Kurnit raises the same risk for the software companies that already hold your data.8
Timing
Where the two clocks meet
The day your retention period ends is often the day records get destroyed, and that is also your last chance to license them. Supersoniq's ads say "Don't shred those files yet", and the Nyne AI page says "Get a quote before anything gets wiped". Before anything goes, take our quiz to see whether the buyers we work with would take records like yours.9,10
If you are closing the business, the clocks matter more. Some buyers take firms that are winding down or already closed, counting staff at their peak, and a few specialize in data deals for startups that are shutting down. What a closed company must keep, and for how long, goes to your advisers.11,12,13
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
Licensing hands over a copy; the originals stay with you, as the AI Data page puts it. How long you keep them is set by your own rules and advisers.4
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Questions to talk through with your buyer
Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.
Questions for this kind of business
- Does licensing a copy of records under a retention requirement create any conflict with that requirement?
- Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
- Which proceeding fits: an ABC, Chapter 7, Chapter 11 or a dissolution?
Questions for any buyer
- Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
- Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
- Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
- How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
- What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
- Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
- Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?