A dataset card is a short document that describes a dataset: what it contains, how and when it was collected, what was removed, known gaps and biases, intended uses and the license. It lets a buyer judge fit without seeing the raw records.
Why it matters when licensing company data
The idea comes from "Datasheets for Datasets" (Gebru and colleagues, 2018), and dataset hosts such as Hugging Face use cards as the standard description. For a company, a one-page card with record types, years covered, volumes, systems of origin and de-identification method is often enough for a first buyer conversation.
The free company record map produces a similar high-level description without sharing any files.
Source
Gebru et al., Datasheets for Datasets (arXiv:1803.09010). Definition reviewed November 7, 2026 by Origin Data Partners.