Think Before You Share, Part II: Can I Get My Data Back?

Following up on last week's post, relationships with technology providers – even the best ones – don't last forever, so it is important to understand whether (and how) you can get your data back when the relationship comes to an end. You may be surprised to learn that many contracts are silent on this issue.

At a minimum, you should be entitled to download your data from a cloud-service provider's system for a specified period of time after the termination of an agreement (in the case of consultants and other professional services providers, you should receive a copy of all data provided to or collected by the vendor while it provided services). Ideally, the data should be in a platform-platform agnostic format so you can move it to another software product without incurring additional cost to convert the data from your last provider's proprietary format.