The reasoning stays. The people don't.
Buyers want how your work gets done, not who did it. Here's exactly how we decide what can be licensed and how personal details come out, with tools you can try right now.
Paste any text. Watch it get de-identified.
This runs entirely in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. Real deals add stronger detection and a human review pass on top.
Which of your data can be licensed?
Tick each source you hold and say who owns it. Records you hold for clients drop out of your estimate, just as they would in a real deal.
How ready are your records?
Tick what's true. It takes 30 seconds, shows how a buyer's lawyers will see your data, and feeds straight into your estimate.
Your estimate with readiness: —
What decides every dataset
Most deals that fail, fail on the first one. We run all three before any buyer sees anything.
You own it
Your own operating records, not files you hold for clients under a services agreement, licensed content, vendor manuals or contractor work without an IP assignment.
Your promises allow it
Customer contracts, terms of service and your privacy policy. The clause that matters is aggregated or de-identified use. We read them first, because a buyer's lawyers will.
People can be removed
Personal details must come out without destroying the useful part. Data whose whole value is who the people are can't be licensed.
What we look at before anything moves
Client-held records
An agency's client work, a bookkeeper's client ledgers and a law firm's matter files belong to the client. We separate them out, or approach the client with you.
Platform terms
Software vendors set their own export rules, often by plan. Slack, for example, changed its API terms in May 2025 so apps may not bulk-export messages or use them to train language models. We check how each export is allowed before anything moves.
State privacy laws
Under the CCPA and similar laws, making personal information available for value can be a "sale", whatever the contract calls it. We license de-identified data and ban re-identification by contract.
Your employees
Staff names and messages are personal information too. Identifiers come out, direct messages are excluded by default, and we help you decide what notice to give. Tell your team anyway.
Calls and voices
About a dozen states require every party's consent to record, and a voice can identify a person. Transcripts usually come first; raw audio gets its own review.
Code
Open-source parts keep their own licenses, client-built code may belong to the client, and contractors need IP assignments. Secrets are purged from every past revision.
Regulated data
Health (HIPAA), financial (GLBA) and card data (PCI) get extra review or stay out. De-identified health data can be workable; identifiable records are not.
Deletion requests
The license sets how a customer's deletion request reaches the buyer. Stored copies are deleted; trained models usually aren't retrained, so we agree this before you sign.
Closing companies
In a bankruptcy, a court or trustee usually has to approve, and privacy-policy promises still bind the sale. Who signs depends on how the company is winding down.
Talkbase is not a law firm. This page is general information so you can frame questions for your counsel. It is not legal advice.
How de-identification works
- Find every detail. Pattern matching for emails, phones and account numbers, language models for names and places, helped by your own lists of customer and staff names.
- Swap each person for one consistent stand-in. "Lena Ortiz", "Lena" and "L. Ortiz" all become [CUSTOMER_41], so the story still makes sense.
- Blur what adds up. Exact dates become months, small towns become regions, rare job titles become general ones.
- Check before it goes. People read a sample, software hunts for leftovers, and a re-identification test runs. You approve the sample, and exactly what was removed is written into the contract.
Removing names alone is not enough, and nobody should promise that data can never be traced. We write down exactly what was removed and never claim more than that.
Some things never leave your company
Whatever the deal, these stay out. You can add your own rules for client names, pricing and project codes.
- Passwords, API keys and security settings
- Card numbers and bank details
- HR files, payroll and benefits
- Medical records and health details
- Private messages and social channels
- Privileged legal advice and sealed documents
- Unpatched security reports
Find out what's licensable, and what isn't.
The valuation includes a first look at rights, so you know where you stand before you spend any time on it.