Most organizations use a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to protect intellectual property or other confidential business information. It’s common to require employees, contractors and business partners to sign an NDA so the company has some legal recourse if someone distributes or leaks any confidential business-related information.
An NDA should provide security to a business that wants to prevent people from sharing its secrets with the world. Unfortunately most of us view it as a formality that doesn’t really have much merit. Unless something is egregious, it’s unlikely that a company will enforce their NDA and prosecute you. For starters it can be very difficult to prove. It’s something to make everyone aware that they should try to protect confidential information, but many times that information leaks anyway.
Most NDAs expect the signatory to use the shared information for internal uses and with a select group of people. There also may be a limit on how long the receiving party can keep the information. By using a Fasoo EDRM solution to control access to the information, the disclosing party can limit access and determine a validity time.
If I share financial reports or information on a new product or service with a prospective business partner or investor, I can lock those documents and limit their use. I could let the investor have access for 30 days. After that, the investor can no longer view the documents. I could share R&D information and limit it to three executives in a prospective partner. If I wanted to revoke access to the documents immediately, I could do it with the click of a mouse. It doesn’t matter the location of the documents or who has them. The documents are always in my control.
With Fasoo, enforcing an NDA becomes simple, since I can maintain control of the shared information at all times. Think about that the next time you are signing an NDA.
Photo credit HM Revenue & Customs
