Put clear legal terms around business data sharing

You usually need a dedicated agreement when one organisation is disclosing information to another on an ongoing or structured basis, especially where personal information, customer records, usage data, or sensitive operational information is involved. Emails and general commercial terms often do not deal properly with purpose limits, onward disclosure, retention, access rights, or incident handling. A separate agreement helps record who is responsible for what. That matters because the legal position depends on the way the business handles information in practice, not just what the parties intended informally.

It will usually cover the categories of information being shared, the purpose of the arrangement, who can access the data, any restrictions on use or onward disclosure, confidentiality, security expectations, retention and deletion, incident notification, audit or review rights, and what happens when the arrangement ends. Depending on the setup, it may also address roles between the parties, overseas providers, customer communications, and how requests relating to personal information are handled. The exact wording depends on the real data flow rather than a generic privacy checklist.

The drafting turns on practical questions such as what information is involved, whether it includes personal or sensitive material, why it is being shared, how often the sharing happens, and whether either party can combine the data with other datasets. We also look at whether the recipient can use the information for its own purposes, whether subcontractors are involved, and what systems or platforms sit in the middle. Privacy wording works best when it is matched to your real collection, use, storage and disclosure practices. across the arrangement.

Sometimes a template can help you spot the broad headings, but it often misses the real risk points. For example, a generic form may not deal properly with mixed datasets, secondary uses, cross-border storage, marketing restrictions, or who responds if an individual asks about their information. It may also use language that does not match the commercial relationship. The aim is to give you a clearer legal framework for the issue, with final risk settings depending on your operating model and follow-through. A document is only part of the picture if day-to-day practices do not match the wording.

Timing depends on how clear the arrangement already is and whether there is an existing draft, term sheet, or privacy position paper to work from. Once engaged, we review the practical details of the sharing arrangement and prepare the agreement around those facts. If there are open questions about roles, permitted uses, or third-party access, those issues may need to be resolved before the wording is finalised. After the draft is prepared, you can review the clauses and raise questions about points such as purpose limits, retention, and incident response.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Data Sharing Agreement service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.