NDAs
Legal silence pacts
NDAs is the plural of NDA, a nondisclosure agreement—a legal contract requiring signers to keep certain information confidential.
Common in business, employment, and settlements, NDAs prevent parties from sharing trade secrets, proprietary information, or details of legal disputes: Everyone on the project had to sign NDAs.
Critics note that NDAs can silence victims of harassment or misconduct.
Quality of protecting secrets
- nondisclosureConcealment of information
- agreementShared position between parties
- contractEnforceable written agreement
- clauseProvision in agreement
breach · enforcement · trade secrets · binding · signatory · parties · proprietary · terms
Protected commercial knowledge
- intellectual propertyLegal rights over inventions
- sensitive dataInformation needing protection from exposure
- formulasSymbolic rules for calculation
- algorithmsFinite instruction sequences
business strategy · competitive advantage · source code · patents · inventions · prototypes · research · development
Obscuring sensitive text
- leaksUnwanted fluid escapes
- whistleblowerInsider who reports misconduct
- exposeMake known publicly
- journalismNews gathering and dissemination
hush money · silence · gag order · suppression · coverup · scandal · allegations · misconduct
New member integration process
- employmentPaid occupation status
- hiringGiving someone work
- HREmployee management department
- complianceAdhering to requirements
new hire · termination · exit interview · employee · contractor · vendor · merger · acquisition
Shared between parties
- unilateralAffecting one side only
- bilateralInvolving two parties
- multilateralInvolving multiple parties
- standardLevel of quality accepted
customized · boilerplate · template · perpetual · time-limited · employee · consultant · vendor
confidentiality
Quality of protecting secrets
- nondisclosureConcealment of information
- agreementShared position between parties
- contractEnforceable written agreement
clause · breach · enforcement · trade secrets · binding · signatory · parties · proprietary · terms · violation
trade secrets
Protected commercial knowledge
- intellectual propertyLegal rights over inventions
- sensitive dataInformation needing protection from exposure
- formulasSymbolic rules for calculation
algorithms · business strategy · competitive advantage · source code · patents · inventions · prototypes · research · development · know-how
redaction
Obscuring sensitive text
- leaksUnwanted fluid escapes
- whistleblowerInsider who reports misconduct
- exposeMake known publicly
journalism · hush money · silence · gag order · suppression · coverup · scandal · allegations · misconduct · harassment
onboarding
New member integration process
- employmentPaid occupation status
- hiringGiving someone work
- HREmployee management department
compliance · new hire · termination · exit interview · employee · contractor · vendor · merger · acquisition · due diligence
mutual
Shared between parties
- unilateralAffecting one side only
- bilateralInvolving two parties
- multilateralInvolving multiple parties
standard · customized · boilerplate · template · perpetual · time-limited · employee · consultant · vendor · research
- legallawyer, judge, jury, trial, verdict
- privacyprivacy, private, seclusion, confidentiality, solitude
- contractsbinding contracts, contract length, lease, clause, contract terms
- HollywoodHollywood, Tinseltown, Hollywood Sign, silver screen, movie stars
- securitysecurity guard, security cameras, alarm system, security system, lock
- barrierswalls, wall, fences, fence, barrier
Revealing information openly
sunshine laws · FOIA requests · whistleblower protections · transparency · freedom of information
NDAspublic records
Officially filed, publicly accessible documents
open source · public domain · declassified documents · press releases · open access
NDAsprotected speech