The importance of the NDA or Confidentiality Agreement
If you are an entrepreneur or in any way you work in the management of an institution, it is very likely that a dilemma has crossed your mind: what to do to keep sensitive information confidential whose exposure, for whatever reason, brings you some harm?
Yes, we know how difficult it is to keep secrets in an era in which anyone can, even naively, disclose their daily lives on the internet.
Sometimes all it takes is a blink of an eye for those data that you wanted to preserve so much to fall into the hands of the competition.
That's why in this article we're going to talk about the NDA.
Have you ever heard about this important legal instrument when it comes to preserving secrets?
What is an NDA or Confidentiality Agreement?
The NDA, or Confidentiality Agreement, is a very important tool for those who work with intelligence information. We know that there is data that, if scattered without proper care, can greatly harm business progress.
Maintaining the secrecy of certain types of content is to guarantee strategic competitiveness that results in acquiring customers or, in crisis situations, prevents the loss of consumers. Hence the effectiveness of a confidentiality term, because without it, anyone inside the company can leak information for the most diverse reasons, from pure and simple naivety to the most obscure objectives.
In this article you will learn a little more about the NDA and have access to a customizable template for this type of document.
NDA is an acronym for the English term “Non Disclosure Agreements”, which can be translated into Portuguese as a Confidentiality Agreement. Its purpose is to protect industrial and commercial secrets, in addition, of course, to guarantee the confidentiality of all information that cannot be disclosed, whoever has access to it.
Projects, products, processes, services, and transactions can be guaranteed security through an NDA. To this end, under the terms of the contract, penalties are imposed if the party discloses the information.
What is a Confidentiality Agreement for?
The NDA serves to guarantee the company's security in relation to the confidential information produced within it. That is, it assures the company that those involved do not disclose data that is protected by this document. Thus, it provides greater peace of mind with sensitive elements such as: ideas, processes, projects, products, services, transactions, prices, negotiations and suppliers.
What are the advantages of the NDA for your company?
There are some benefits for a company that works with the NDA, these are:
- Competitive business advantages: each institution, whether industrial, commercial, social or public, has its own work model. Sometimes it's a way of using technology, other times it's internal processes, the ability to invest in innovation... Finally, each company is unique and the way in which it works internally can be its great differential compared to the competition. Therefore, keeping these processes confidential creates a competitive advantage.
- Preserving the image of your business: how many times have we not seen a company's image tarnished due to the inappropriate behavior of its employees? The conduct of employees cannot be controlled. If any of them reveal company secrets, the losses can be enormous. But with the existence of an NDA signed by all members of the company, this risk is reduced and ensures greater peace of mind for the leadership.
- Control what information may or may not be disclosed: in the Data Age, those who have the most knowledge are also those who have the most power. Therefore, when you have guaranteed control of the information, you are assured of decisions about what to do with the data created by the company, that is, whether to disclose them or not, and when and the best way to do this.
- Be accessible to everyone: individuals or legal entities can use the NDA to protect themselves. Because it is a simple and fast document that requires only a few formalities to be valid. It can be used between two or more companies; between the company and employees; between the company and its suppliers; or even with investors.
Legal validity
The NDA is a type of contract. Thus, it is important that it contains the jurisdiction, such as the region and court in which it will be tried, if that is necessary. But there are other elements that are also necessary for the Confidentiality Agreement to have legal validity. For example:
- Clause containing the penalty if the party breaches the Agreement;
- Inform which parties are going to commit to secrecy;
- Expiry date;
- Contain in detail what this NDA refers to. This is important, because a generic and ambiguous contractual text can mischaracterize the legal document.
We're sure that now, based on what you've read in this article, the idea of doing an NDA is already present in your mind, isn't it? Therefore, we are going to further detail a confidentiality agreement, showing, for example, what are the types of NDA.
Types of NDA
- Unilateral: this type of contract occurs when one of the parties has information that they wish to keep confidential and the other, who will have access to it, undertakes not to reveal it without due authorization. An example of this is the hiring of a consultant to perform a specific service that will give you access to confidential elements. Thus, the NDA guarantees the security of this data.
- Bilateral or Mutual: widely used when two companies make a joint venture, this type of agreement commits all parties to keep the information produced secret.
- Multilateral: multilateral confidentiality agreements, as well as mutual ones, exist when more than one party is responsible for sensitive data. But the difference between bilateral and multilateral ones is that the latter have different degrees of commitment between the parties.
How to make NDA?
Ok! Since you've come this far, we're going to make your job easier. At this link there is a Confidentiality Agreement template that you can use for free. And since you're going to use this template, how about taking advantage and getting to know a little more about Clicksign Automation?
Not sure what Clicksign Automation is?
Don't worry, we'll talk now.
O Clicksign Automation it is an online contract management and optimization platform. With it you will make it much easier to create, fill out, send, sign and store your documents. Among them, the NDA.
So what are you waiting for to use the Clicksign Automation Confidentiality Agreement template? Come on, there's no expense!
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