Article

Is it safe to license company records?

By TrustPast

Updated October 19, 2026

An owner hears that a buyer will pay for fifteen years of estimates and job files. The next thought is not the money. It is who will be reading them, and what happens to the customers in them. This page settles the practical questions behind that worry, using what micro1 publishes: who sees the records, how access is limited, how the records are prepared, what you review before anything is used, how long the copy is kept, and what you can still say no to.

Our How it’s safe page gives the short answers in plain words. This page goes one level down, with micro1’s own wording and the questions we would ask on the call.

The short answer

micro1 publishes a paragraph on how company data is protected. It opens with this: “Protecting customer data is a core principle of the program.” Then it lists the controls. Personal information is removed when relevant. Access is restricted to a limited number of authorized team members. Each company’s data runs through its own pipeline. Data is kept for agreed periods. You review samples before use. Deletion requests are honored under the engagement’s terms.

micro1 also says, in its October announcement, that it “uses de-identified company data.” The records are de-identified before use.

And the part owners rarely hear first: customer names and payments are never what is wanted. What is wanted is how the work was done. How an estimate became a job. How a change order was settled. How a repair was diagnosed. The people in those records are what the redaction rules you agree are there to remove. The steps of the work are what is wanted.

Each of those points has a section below, with micro1’s words and what to ask.

Apply & License Your Data

Who sees the records

micro1’s answer is short. On its data partnerships page: “access is restricted to a limited number of authorized team members.”

micro1 does not publish a number, and it does not publish the job titles. That is a question to ask.

micro1 adds a line about the people themselves: “employees with access to data systems use company-managed devices and follow established security controls and training requirements.” In plain words, the people who can open the records do it on machines micro1 manages, under rules it trains them on. Not on a personal laptop at a kitchen table.

micro1’s pages we cite publish no more than that about its security, so neither do we. If your insurer, your lender or a large client asks how a licensee handles your records, ask micro1 for its answer in writing. Before any participation, micro1 says, the company and micro1 define together the “Security and confidentiality standards.” That line is where your insurer’s questions belong.

As our own advice, ask three things on the discovery call:

How many people at micro1 will be able to see our records, and in what roles?
Who sees the records before they are de-identified, and who only sees the prepared copy?
Can that list be written into the agreement?

A straight answer to the second question tells you most of what you need.

Access limits: your records stay in their own lane

The second control is about the records, not the people. micro1 says customer data “is processed through isolated pipelines that prevent it from being commingled with other engagements.”

Think of it like the parts room. Your job’s parts sit in your bin, tagged to your job, and they don’t end up on somebody else’s truck. micro1’s word for that is isolated. Your records are handled on their own, not poured into a pile with every other company’s.

micro1 also says that after data is shared, “it is processed according to the agreed use case and handling requirements.” Agreed is the word that carries the weight there. The use and the handling are set with you, before anything moves. A use that isn’t in the agreement is not an agreed use.

One more point on access, from micro1’s payout page. It says the final payout “is determined based on data sources, volume, quality, access terms, and due diligence.” Access terms are on that list. As our own reading, that means tighter limits are something you can ask for, and something micro1 weighs when it prices. Ask how a narrower scope or stricter access would change the offer. Better to know at discovery than after signing.

How the records are prepared

This is the step that answers the customer question, so it is worth reading slowly.

micro1’s page on what happens after data is shared says: “Depending on the nature of the data, personally identifiable information may be removed and certain datasets may undergo synthetic rewrites that preserve workflow structure while reducing direct ties to original records.”

There are two different tools in that sentence.

Removal. Personally identifiable information is taken out. On an estimate, that is the homeowner’s name, the street address, the phone number. On a job file, it is the same, plus anything in the notes that names a person. What is left is the scope, the measurements, the line items, the versions and the outcome.

Synthetic rewrites. Some records are rewritten so the structure of the work stays, while the direct ties to the original record are reduced. In our own plain words: the order of the steps is kept, and the details that point back to one job are changed. Here is our own illustration, not micro1’s. A ticket from 14 March says a technician checked the thermostat, then the capacitor, then replaced a 45/5 capacitor and billed $310. A rewrite might move the date, change the model number and the amount, and keep the order: thermostat first, capacitor second, replacement third. The diagnosis reads the same, and the ticket no longer matches one job. Our page on how de-identification works on your records shows the same thing on an estimate, an email thread, a Slack channel and a CRM note.

Note the words micro1 chose. “May be removed,” “certain datasets,” “when relevant.” micro1 does not publish one method for every company. It publishes that the method is set with each company. Before any participation, micro1 says, the two sides define the “Anonymization and redaction requirements” together.

So the preparation is not something done to you. It is something you agree. As our own advice, bring a short list to discovery:

which fields in your systems hold names, addresses, phone numbers and emails;
which free-text fields might, such as the technician’s notes or the job comments;
which documents carry a signature, a photo of a person or a licence plate;
who does the removal, and at what step.

You don’t scrub the records yourself before you apply. Your systems stay as they are. The list is so the redaction rules can be written to fit your records rather than somebody else’s.

Our page on whether the buyer sees your customers’ names shows where your customers’ names sit, system by system, and what to ask to come out.

What is wanted, and what is not

This is the part that settles most of the worry, so here it is plainly.

micro1 says it is looking for “data that reflects how work is actually performed within an organization.” It says: “The most valuable datasets capture real operational expertise, decision-making processes, and repeatable workflows.”

A customer’s name is not how work is performed. Neither is a card number, a bank account or a payment date. None of those teaches anything about how a job was run. They are what the redaction rules you agree are there to remove.

What teaches something is the chain. Take an estimate. The first version priced a replacement. The site visit found a second problem. The revised version split the work into two phases. The customer approved phase one. That chain is an estimate becoming a job, with the reasoning written down. It reads the same with the customer’s name taken out.

Take a change order. The crew found something behind the wall. The project manager priced it, the customer pushed back, and they settled on a number with a note on why. That is a change order being settled. The name on the contract adds nothing to it.

Take a repair. The call said no heat. The technician checked the obvious, found it fine, traced it to a part two steps upstream, and wrote down why. That is a repair being diagnosed. The address on the ticket adds nothing to it.

micro1 publishes the kinds of records it means. On its data partnerships page: “SOPs, knowledge bases, internal documentation, CRM data, project histories, and QA processes.” Our cornerstone page on what data buyers want from a trade business goes through the same split, file by file, for four trades.

Sample review before use

micro1 publishes this twice. In its answer on protection: “companies have the opportunity to review representative samples before use.” In its answer on what happens after data is shared: “companies are given the opportunity to review representative samples before prepared data is used.”

Read the second one closely. The samples are of the prepared data. That means you see the records after the names are removed and any rewrites are done, and before anything is used. It is the step where the redaction rules meet your actual files.

As our own advice, use that step properly. A sample review is only as good as the person doing it. Three suggestions:

Pick the reviewer who knows the files. The office manager who has read ten thousand tickets will spot a customer’s name in a technician’s note faster than anyone else.
Look at the messy records, not just the clean ones. Ask for samples from free-text fields, scanned documents and old systems. That is where a name hides.
Write down what you find. If a sample shows something that should have come out, say so in writing and ask for the fix before use.

micro1 does not publish how many samples, or what happens after a sample fails. Ask both at discovery. “Representative” is a word worth having defined.

Retention and deletion

micro1 says: “Data is retained only for a limited period based on agreed retention policies.” And: “Upon request or at the end of an engagement, data is deleted according to the agreed retention and deletion terms.” In its protection answer it adds that “deletion requests are honored according to the terms of the engagement.”

So there are two ways deletion happens. You ask, or the engagement ends. Both run on terms you agree.

micro1 does not publish one retention period for every company. The period is set in the agreement. Our page on whether you keep ownership of your records goes through retention, deletion and the contract line by line. The short version, as our own advice: get the retention period as a length of time, get the date the clock starts, and get how you will be told the deletion is done.

Ownership doesn’t move in any of this. micro1’s answer to “who owns the data?” is one sentence: “Companies retain ownership of their underlying data.” Deletion is about micro1’s prepared copy. Your own systems are untouched either way.

What you can say no to

Owners are used to contracts where the decisions happen at signing. This one has more doors.

micro1 publishes four steps:

Get started. A short assessment “designed to identify the right partnership for your company.”
Evaluation. micro1’s team “reviews your submission to determine whether your company is a fit.”
Discovery. If there is a potential fit, micro1 will “request additional information and schedule a discovery call to discuss your data and privacy requirements.”
Partnership. “If approved, we’ll finalize the agreement and data requirements and begin the partnership.”

micro1 also says that after a referral, its team guides the company through an initial interview to assess the fit. Its referral page says every company goes through the micro1 evaluation process. Applying is not agreeing.

Here is where you can say no, in our own words:

You can decide not to apply. Nothing is shared by finding out a range.
You can ask to leave a system out. The approved data scope and its boundaries are defined together before any participation. You can ask for a system to be left out of the scope.
You can leave years out. A scope can name the years as well as the systems.
You agree the redaction rules with micro1. They are defined together, before any participation.
You review samples before use. Ask at discovery what happens if one needs another pass.
You can decline the agreement. Until it is signed, nothing has been licensed.
You can ask for deletion. micro1 says deletion requests are honored according to the terms of the engagement.

micro1 also lists “Internal approval processes and permissions” among the things defined before any participation. In plain words, who at your company has to approve what, before anything moves. If your partner, your controller or your board needs to sign off, that goes in.

A safe process isn’t one with no risk. It is one where you can see each step and stop at any step before you sign; after that, the agreement’s terms apply. That is what to check for.

What this means for an HVAC company with 30 or more staff

Here is one trade, as our own description and not a list from micro1. Say a commercial and residential HVAC company of 45, as a hypothetical, with twelve years in its service software.

What it holds. The service tickets: what the customer reported, what the technician checked, what it was, what was replaced. The estimates for replacements, with the good, better and best options and which one the customer picked. The maintenance agreements and the visit notes under them. The dispatch history, showing the board being reshuffled on the first cold morning of the year. The change orders on new-construction jobs, when the ductwork didn’t fit the drawings.

What should stay out or come out. The customer names, the service addresses, the phone numbers, the gate codes in the notes and the photos with a person in them are what the redaction rules you agree are there to remove. The cards on file and the payment records were never how the work was done. As our own advice, they belong outside the scope.

What stays. The diagnosis. The order of the steps. The reason the technician replaced the board rather than the motor. The estimate that went from a repair to a replacement after the second visit. The change order that added a return run and the note on how it was priced. That is the record a buyer uses to train AI models on real work.

What to ask. Who at micro1 sees the tickets before preparation. How free-text notes are handled, since that is where a gate code or a name lives. How many samples you will see, and from which years. How long the copy is kept. Whether the maintenance agreements are in the scope or left out.

The question behind your range is the same as for any trade. For how many years, and how completely, was the work written down? Worth two minutes to see your range? Our estimate asks five questions.

What is never included

micro1’s own words on this are short. On its data partnerships page: “We understand business data can contain sensitive information. Every partnership is designed around your organization’s requirements, with clear controls over what is shared, how it is handled, and what is never included.” Before any participation, micro1 says, the “Approved data scope and clear boundaries” and the “Anonymization and redaction requirements” are defined together. micro1 settles what is excluded with each company, before any participation.

What follows is our own advice, not micro1’s. Keep these out unless micro1 agrees otherwise in writing: attorney-client privileged records, health information, payment-card and financial-account details, Social Security numbers, minors’ data, biometric data, and classified or export-controlled material. Ask micro1 before you apply if any of your records sit near those lines. Where those records hide, folder by folder, is on what is never included in a records licence.

Two more points, also our own advice. Anything a client owns under its contract with you belongs to the client, and only the contracts say which is which. Have your counsel read them before discovery. And the employee files, the payroll and the HR folder are not how the work was done. They don’t belong in the scope.

Our page on whether licensing company records is legal lists whose rights to check first.

Where we fit

We, TrustPast, explain how this works and give you a range with our estimate. The range is ours, not an offer. You apply to micro1 yourself, through the button below. micro1 pays us a referral fee. You pay us nothing, and we never see your files.

That last point matters on a safety page. We are not in the chain of custody. Your records go from your systems to micro1, on terms you agree with micro1, and nowhere through us.

Before you apply

Four things to settle first, as our own advice:

Count the people. micro1’s published line is 30 or more employees.
Map where the names live. The fields, the free-text notes, the scans. One page is enough.
Decide what stays home. Systems, years and folders you won’t license, whatever the price.
Write your questions down. Who sees the records, who does the redaction, how many samples, how long the copy is kept. Bring them to the discovery call.

Then answer the five questions. If the range is worth your time, apply. You can stop at any step before you sign; after that, the agreement’s terms apply.

TrustPast

Questions and answers

Who at micro1 can see our records?

micro1 says access is restricted to a limited number of authorized team members, that employees with access to data systems use company-managed devices and follow established security controls and training requirements, and that each company’s data is processed through isolated pipelines that keep it from being commingled with other engagements.

Are customer names taken out?

micro1 says personally identifiable information is removed when relevant, and that certain datasets may undergo synthetic rewrites that preserve workflow structure while reducing direct ties to original records. The anonymization and redaction requirements are defined together with the company before any participation.

Do we see what will be used before it is used?

Yes. micro1 says companies are given the opportunity to review representative samples before prepared data is used.

How long is the data kept, and can it be deleted?

micro1 says data is retained only for a limited period based on agreed retention policies. Upon request or at the end of an engagement, it says, data is deleted according to the agreed retention and deletion terms.

Can we say no along the way?

Before signing, yes. micro1 publishes four steps: an assessment, an evaluation, a discovery call about the data and the privacy requirements, and, if approved, the agreement. It says the approved data scope, the security and confidentiality standards, the anonymization and redaction requirements and the internal approval processes are defined together before any participation.