Who Owns the Data? The Question Nobody Asked

Here's a question most AI projects never ask until it's too late: who owns the data?

Notice those are three different things. Ownership is who has the rights to it. Access is who can see it. Control is who decides what happens to it. In most projects, those three are split across different parties. Your customer provided the data. Your team uses it. Your vendor stores and processes it.

When nobody writes down the answers, everyone assumes the version that suits them. Then comes the dispute, the audit, or the awkward moment when you switch vendors and discover your data isn't really yours to take.

The fix is boring and it works: answer the ownership question in writing before the project starts. Put it in the contract. Revisit it when the relationship changes.

Unasked questions become expensive questions.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.