Responsible Data Principles

Why these principles exist

A rail that moves data earns trust the same way any infrastructure does: by behaving predictably under rules everyone can read. These principles are those rules, stated in plain language.

They describe how bnd operates today and how the Human Data Rail is being designed. Where a principle describes future architecture rather than current operation, we say so. As a plain status guide: today this website collects only high-level descriptions and inquiries; the controlled record for the first transaction is in development; the automated rail that enforces these principles as infrastructure is future architecture. The Governance and Chain of Custody page sets out what is intended to be recorded for every package.

Permission and provenance

Permission: data moves only within the permissions its owner has granted. Owners set the terms, and the rail is being designed to enforce them. Nothing travels because it merely exists; it travels because someone with the right to decide said it could, and said how.

Provenance: every transaction is intended to carry a provenance record showing where the material came from, what the supplier confirmed about it, and which rights travel with it. Until an automated ledger exists, the same information is planned to be maintained through each transaction's controlled record. Provenance is a statement of origin and terms, not a ranking of worth.

Purpose limitation and qualified demand

Purpose limitation: buyers receive rights for stated purposes. A licence to use material for one purpose is not a licence for every purpose. What buyers disclose to suppliers are the enforceable commercial terms of use, never their research secrets.

Qualified demand: bnd works with identified organisations that can state what they need and why. It does not serve anonymous mass buyers, and it does not treat demand as legitimate simply because it is willing to pay.

No public browsing, controlled disclosure

No public archive browsing: raw archives never become browseable inventory. There is no catalogue of other people's material to scroll through. Requests travel to the data; the data does not sit in a shop window.

Controlled disclosure: owners decide what may be reviewed, and by whom. Discovery can begin with descriptions and permitted analysis, without transferring raw sensitive data at all. An owner can explore whether value exists before exposing anything.

Supplier and buyer responsibility

Supplier responsibility: suppliers must confirm they control what they provide. Material enters the rail on the strength of the supplier's confirmation that they have the authority to share it and to grant the rights attached to it.

Buyer responsibility: buyers are responsible for using data within the rights they agreed. Receiving a package does not transfer ownership of everything in it; it transfers the specific rights that were granted, for the purposes that were stated.

How a bnd opportunity begins

bnd begins with the organisation, not with a public dataset catalogue. It studies the organisation's activities and asks what valuable information may already be produced through those activities.

Discovery begins with high-level descriptions. Raw confidential or regulated material is not required simply to determine whether an opportunity may exist.

The progression runs:

• Organisation
• Potential data reservoir
• Commercial research
• Supplier decision
• Qualified buyer demand
• Licence negotiation
• Controlled delivery
• Transaction and lifecycle record

The supplier decides what enters the process

bnd may identify an opportunity, but the supplier decides whether it wishes to explore licensing. The supplier identifies what it believes it controls and what it is willing to discuss.

Before material moves, the relevant parties must establish: what the data is; who created it; which organisation controls it; whether other people or organisations hold rights; whether contracts restrict its use; whether personal or regulated information is involved; which uses may be permitted; and what must be removed, transformed, or restricted.

Supplier confirmation is recorded, but it is not automatic legal clearance.

Every movement leaves a record

Each proposed or completed licence should maintain a structured record so the data never becomes detached from its source, permissions, buyer, licence, or commercial history. That record covers:

• Supplier identity, source system or process, and the supplier authority statement with relevant permission evidence
• Package identifier, version, and a description of included and excluded material
• Transformations and redactions, approved samples, authorised reviewers, and access dates
• Buyer legal identity, buyer requirement, permitted use, prohibited use, and the model or programme where relevant
• Licence duration, territory, onward-transfer rules, and agreement version
• Delivery confirmation, agreed price, bnd brokerage fee, supplier proceeds, and settlement status
• Expiry, renewal, suspension, incidents, and deletion, return, or closure evidence

A private record, not a public one

This record is private. It is not a public blockchain and it is not a public catalogue. It exists so that the data does not become detached from its source, permissions, buyer, licence, or commercial history. The Governance and Chain of Custody page describes it in full.

Purpose-specific licensing

Permission for evaluation is not permission for training. Permission for retrieval is not permission for pretraining. Permission for one system, model, or research programme is not automatically permission for another.

Each agreement should distinguish between inspection, evaluation, benchmarking, retrieval, supervised fine-tuning, post-training, pretraining, safety testing, agent development, internal research, and production deployment.

The commercial flow

The buyer pays for the licence under the agreed transaction terms. bnd receives its agreed brokerage fee. The supplier receives the remaining proceeds in accordance with the agreement.

The standard bnd model is: the buyer's licence payment, a 30% bnd brokerage fee, and 70% supplier proceeds. The exact calculation, taxes, expenses, renewals, and payment timing are determined by the applicable agreement.

Review, removal, and truthful representation

Review and removal: material can be rejected or withdrawn before delivery. Where access or use has already occurred, the available remedy depends on the agreement, the form of use, and what is technically possible. bnd records the response taken and does not promise reversal that the technology cannot support.

Truthful representation: bnd distinguishes what is operational today from what is prototype, in development, or future architecture, and labels each accordingly. And one commitment underneath all of this: no data is guaranteed to have commercial value. Discovery is honest work precisely because the answer can be no.