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Question

Can SaaS data be licensed?

By SourceX Editorial · Updated

Short answer

Data a company stores in SaaS tools — tickets, CRM records, documents, code — can often be licensed if the company controls it and its agreements permit sharing. Most SaaS terms confirm customers own their content. The vendor's own platform data, usage analytics and other customers' data are not yours to license. For SaaS companies licensing data about their own customers, customer contracts are usually the deciding factor.

Part of: Enterprise data

Explanation#

Two cases are different: a business licensing its own content held in a SaaS tool, and a SaaS provider licensing data generated by its customers.

The second case usually requires express contractual rights or customer opt-in.

Examples#

  • A support team licensing its Zendesk ticket history
  • A SaaS vendor licensing aggregated, opted-in usage workflows

Rights and privacy#

  • SaaS terms on data export and use
  • Customer agreements and DPAs
  • Aggregation and de-identification

How licensing works#

A business describes its data, buyer demand is assessed, scope and permitted use are proposed, the data is prepared and de-identified, an agreement is signed, and the approved dataset is delivered. See data licensing for detail.

Relevant systems

ZendeskSalesforceJiraGitHub

Relevant industries

Relevant data types

Related questions

Sources

  1. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), EUR-Lex

General information, not legal advice. Editorial policy.

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