Terms like “Non-Disclosure Agreement,” “NDA,” and “Confidentiality Agreement,” or phrases like “protect sensitive information” and “protect ideas” are extremely common when talking to a legal professional. If you’ve spent more than five minutes with one, you’ve probably heard some of these terms.
Not to mention, if you have a sit down with an ambitious startup founder, they will also, most likely, start mentioning NDAs. For example, “I need to have an NDA signed by those potential investors before securing the funding” or something along those lines.
So why does everyone talk about them? Is it just a fading trend in business?
Well, not really. Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are crucially important. Not just in the business world, but also for individuals.
Without further ado, let’s jump right into it!
1. NDAs in the business world
Without NDAs, doing business would have been extremely tough! Imagine you have a revolutionary, ground-breaking idea that could transform the world as we know it and yet, you couldn’t get it manufactured or marketed for fear that someone would copy it, so you end up not telling anyone about it.
NDAs protect such confidential information. By having employees, shareholders, directors, subcontractors, executives, business partners, among others, sign an NDA, you can sleep peacefully knowing that they won’t go about their day sharing and disclosing your confidential information to someone else.
NDAs, hence, are important to protect your confidential and sensitive information, whether it’s for a business idea, a marketing plan, product specifications and other similar things. To the extent that you’re allowed to, of course.
A Court of Law with competent jurisdiction may require the receiving party of that NDA to disclose your confidential and sensitive information if it is unlawful and/or deems it necessary. Especially when it comes to matters that have to do with the overall public good. Society, in general, is higher in importance than just 2 parties that signed an NDA and therefore, a Court of Law may deem it void and allow the disclosure of certain confidential information.
This doesn’t mean that NDAs are meaningless though, it’s not a coincidence that everyone keeps talking about them!
Employees signing NDAs before commencing their employment with a new employer have very much become standard practice.
2. NDAs in the personal world
NDAs are not only crucial for businesses but also for certain individuals looking to protect some of their confidential information such as contact details, personal information such as address, passport numbers, etc.
Think of a virtual assistant or a secretary. They may have a lot of access to the personal details of their boss. Thus, their boss may, most likely, request that the virtual assistant/ secretary sign a confidentiality agreement (NDA) to prevent them from sharing the address, phone number, email address and other personal details of their boss to other people.
Conclusion
Confidentiality agreements, or NDAs, are hugely significant to protect, not only, sensitive business information, business ideas, products, but also other personal confidential information such as personal details. Overall, businesses would struggle to conduct business without them but they need to be wary of the legal intricacies regarding them.
To ensure that your NDA is airtight and covers all laws, legal regulations and legislation, get in touch today to ensure your protection!