Free resource · Evidence and audit
What should you write down the day you add an AI vendor?
Day one feels like nothing to do. No page has changed and no clause has moved. But a change eighteen months from now can only be proved against a copy you keep today.
Here’s what to save, what to ask for, and how to set it up, in three parts.
Download the day-one checklist
5
of the ten answers worth having are published by fewer than a fifth of the 186 vendors we watch.
Day one is also the only day you have leverage.
Those answers are the terms that decide what a later change costs you, so ask for them before you sign. After the signature, the answer is whatever the standard page says.
Part 1
Keep a dated copy of these pages.
For each, keep the URL, the date you read it, and a copy of the page, not a bookmark. A link shows the page as it stands today, and you’ll be asked what it said in March.
| Page | Where to find it | Vendors publishing one |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy policy | Linked from the footer. Save the version with an effective date on it rather than a print view. | 181 of 186 |
| Trust center | trust.<vendor> or security.<vendor>. Certifications, sub-processors and residency statements often live here rather than in the legal pages. | 167 of 186 |
| Terms of service | The self-serve terms, which govern anyone in your company who signs up outside procurement. | 156 of 186 |
| Sub-processor list | Usually /subprocessors or a tab inside the trust center. A trust center's front page previews a few and links the rest. Save the full list, not the preview. | 153 of 186 |
| Data processing agreement | The published template, even when yours is negotiated. It is the document their notice clause is drafted from and the one they will amend. | 115 of 186 |
| Changelog or release notes | Where a retirement is announced. Some vendors also email active users. | 77 of 186 |
| Model card | Per-model documentation. What it says about training data and evaluation is the part to compare when it changes. | 51 of 186a floor: our list |
| Status page | status.<vendor>. Not a compliance document, but the record of what an incident looked like from outside. | 32 of 186a floor: our list |
| Deprecation schedule | A separate page from the changelog for the vendors that keep one. Most fold retirements into release notes instead. | 16 of 186a floor: our list |
These counts reflect which pages we watch as much as what vendors publish. The three marked as a floor reflect it most: we watch a deprecation page for 16 vendors, which says nothing about how many keep one.
Part 2
Write down these answers, and ask for the ones that aren’t on a page.
| Question | On a page today | If not, ask for |
|---|---|---|
| When was each of these documents last changed? | 165 of 186 (89%) | Nothing — this one you take from the page. Record it, because a document with no date is one you cannot show moved. |
| Who else touches our data? | 128 of 186 (69%) | The list, and a commitment to notify additions. Their list names companies your contract is not with. |
| What do they say they hold? | 119 of 186 (64%) | The report, under NDA, and the level. A trust page saying SOC 2 has not said Type II. |
| How long do we have to object to a new sub-processor, and how are we told? | 81 of 186 (44%) | A period that runs from an email to a named address, not from a page being updated, so you can see when it starts. |
| Where is our data processed, and where can it go? | 62 of 186 (33%) | A commitment about a place, not a disclosure that transfers happen. They look alike and mean opposite things. |
| How much notice before a model we depend on is retired? | 37 of 186 (20%) | A minimum period in the agreement, and the address any retirement email goes to. Some vendors email active users; whether you get it depends on your account. |
| How long is our data kept after we stop using the service? | 36 of 186 (19%) | A period per category, in writing. A vendor states several windows and they cover different data. |
| Will our data train their models? | 34 of 186 (18%) | A commitment covering the model provider they sit on, not only themselves. Their sub-processor's terms are not theirs to promise. |
| Does not objecting count as approving? | 19 of 186 (10%) | If silence approves, ask for the notice to be delivered rather than published. If they won't move the clause, ask them to send the email anyway. |
| How fast are we told about a breach, and by what route? | 11 of 186 (6%) | A stated number of hours and a named contact of yours. A status page is not notice. |
† How much notice before a model we depend on is retired? A floor rather than a reading: we watch a changelog for 77 vendors and a deprecation page for 16, so this counts where we looked.
Part 3
Three habits that make the copy count.
- 1
Store the copy, not the link.
A link resolves to today. Keep the page as text or PDF, with the date you read it and a fingerprint (SHA-256 hash) of what you stored.
- 2
Write down where you looked and found nothing.
A page missing from your file reads later as a page that does not exist. Record the URL you tried and what it returned, so a gap shows as a gap, not an oversight.
- 3
Put the re-read on a schedule before you need it.
A sub-processor list is a web page, so an addition shows up as an edit to it. A date in your calendar is all it takes.
What a dated copy has to carry to hold up later has its own checklist.
Have it open the next time you sign a vendor.
Both tables and the three habits as a Word document. The counts are current on the day you download it.
Common questions.
What should I save when onboarding an AI vendor?
The sub-processor list, the data processing agreement, the privacy policy, the trust center, the terms and the changelog, each as a dated copy, not a link. Then answers to ten questions, some of which you'll have to ask for.
Why save anything on day one when nothing has changed?
Because a change can only be proved against a copy you already hold. Day one isn't about watching. It's when you make the copy a later change will be measured against.
Which answers will not be on a vendor's page?
Notice before a model is retired, how long data is kept, whether your data trains their models, whether silence approves a sub-processor and how an incident is notified. Fewer than a fifth of the 186 vendors we watch publish them, so you have to ask.
Is a bookmark enough?
No. A link shows the page as it stands today, and you will be asked what it said eighteen months ago. Keep the text or a PDF, with the date and a fingerprint (SHA-256 hash) of what you kept.
What if a vendor publishes nothing under one of these headings?
Record the URL you tried and what it returned. A page missing from your file reads later as a page that does not exist, and a vendor that refused an automated reader is not a vendor that publishes nothing.
Prove what a page said
More for this job.
- ExplainerWho must notice a vendor's sub-processor change?What bank regulators and DORA expect of the firm, quoted from the texts.Open it ›
- ExplainerKeeping a DORA register currentWhat the register asks about providers and subcontractors, and since when.Open it ›
- TemplateEvidence pack templateThe eight sections a dated copy needs, with one real pack to copy from.Open it ›
We wrote the pages and the questions. Every figure beside them is counted across the 186 vendors we watch: how many we read each page for, and how many publish something we could read under each heading.
A vendor where we could read nothing is counted as neither publishing nor refusing. We record only that we looked. How we keep the record.
This is not legal advice, and the questions are a starting point no one has approved for your situation. Your negotiated contract governs. The record is free to read, and corrections are free to request.