Staff signing an NDA?

[Shortie]

Not all forums do this as it is at the discretion of the owner as to whether an NDA may be needed for their staff.

An NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is a legally binding agreement between staff members and the owner of the forum which allows them to disclose information that should not go any further than between staff and the owner.

For example, an NDA would be used and staff would be asked to sign one to agree that anything that is discussed in private should not be mentioned anywhere else.

Do you ensure staff sign an NDA?

 

[Ravenfreak]

I don't have a NDA for my communities, but I do have a rule for staff to not leak anything out of the staff lounge. I trust that my staff wouldn't leak anything.

 

[Millie]

Not all forums do this as it is at the discretion of the owner as to whether an NDA may be needed for their staff.

An NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is a legally binding agreement between staff members and the owner of the forum which allows them to disclose information that should not go any further than between staff and the owner.

For example, an NDA would be used and staff would be asked to sign one to agree that anything that is discussed in private should not be mentioned anywhere else.

Do you ensure staff sign an NDA?

Unfortunately NDAs are notoriously difficult to enforce legally, even in full-time employment settings. There's a lot of caveats and loopholes that can usually be found legally that allows people freedom to disclose stuff, and I'd imagine it's 10x harder without having a LOT of personally identifiable information on someone to enforce. For example without their home address it's very difficult to prove the document was "valid" when signed.

NDAs are great at protecting intellectual property because the laws there are a bit stricter and in other areas of law, but for information/speech limiting, very little makes them effective.

Trust is the best policy! If you cannot trust your staff, they should not be on staff

 

[veloman]

Unfortunately NDAs are notoriously difficult to enforce legally, even in full-time employment settings. There's a lot of caveats and loopholes that can usually be found legally that allows people freedom to disclose stuff, and I'd imagine it's 10x harder without having a LOT of personally identifiable information on someone to enforce. For example without their home address it's very difficult to prove the document was "valid" when signed.

NDAs are great at protecting intellectual property because the laws there are a bit stricter and in other areas of law, but for information/speech limiting, very little makes them effective.

Trust is the best policy! If you cannot trust your staff, they should not be on staff

I believe in the UK you can only sue for damages. So to enforce a NDA you'd have to prove that:

• The user broke the specific terms of the NDA
• The breaking of the NDA lead to material harm (i.e. loss of income, etc.)

I know sometimes people put a "penalty" for breaking an NDA, but to enforce any penalty you would then have to prove that it is reasonable. If I put "If you break the NDA you have to pay £10k", but the website generates no income, then I don't see a judge enforcing it!

Like Mills says... trust is key. Someone untrustworthy is unlikely to care about an NDA anyway!

 

[John]

In all honesty, I’d never be staff somewhere that even asked me to sign an NDA. That causes me to believe that others feel the same way, and I’d never want to start my volunteer (or incredibly low paid employee) on that foot.

As stated above, if you can’t trust your staff not to leak secrets from staff boards, they shouldn’t be staff. If you’re working on something so groundbreaking you’re worried about leaks that would destroy the idea, you need some very strong patents and a damn good lawyer.

 

[Arantor]

I’m not sure what you’d have on a forum that would need an NDA for protection…

 

[Steve]

Seems very overkill to me, and like others have said I don’t think I’d want to volunteer or even work for anybody that requires an NDA to be signed.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I’m not sure what you’d have on a forum that would need an NDA for protection…

I'm with Arantor here...

I mean what are doing to need an NDA for?

On a forum of all places. I suppose if you're a company with trade secrets and you have a forum, maybe. Otherwise, it's something that would make me leave your team as a volunteer. I mean, imagine it: Hey join my staff team but if you talk about any of it in the public, I'll sue you...

Not very inviting.

 

[SDL]

I've never heard of this in the online forum world, it would be pretty pointless in my opinion. What could possibly be so secret that you require volunteers, whom you've probably never met or will meet, to sign a legal document? If your forum is truly that unique and will make you enough money to make a legal document important, I wouldn't be hiring volunteers in the first place. I'd be hiring employees on a salary.

 

[Alex]

Signing a NDA is not something I would do. You are not an employee, there is no binding contractual obligations so why should you have to sign a NDA? Unless you’re working on something top secret website owners shouldn’t have too much to hide. If they do, then there’s something seriously wrong here.

 

[Empire]

Nope, no need to do that I mean I signup for NDA many times as a game tester but that's a different ball game that is.

 

[Paul]

No. It's internet forums, not KFC or Coca Cola.

 

[vbgamer45]

I am kind of against NDA's in general, unless you agree to pay someone not to work for in the same industry the duration of the nda in affect.
For forums not needed unless you dealing with very sensitive information.

 

[Dismal_Bliss]

An NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) is a legally binding agreement between staff members and the owner of the forum which allows them to disclose information that should not go any further than between staff and the owner.

For example, an NDA would be used and staff would be asked to sign one to agree that anything that is discussed in private should not be mentioned anywhere else.

It's already built-in to the Terms & Conditions, Membership Policy, and Privacy Policy. If the Staff doesn't honor these policies, they will lose their position.

 

[Spartan]

I do not have any staff right now but wouldn’t require one if I did

 

[Nomad]

I have never made my staff sign NDA and I have also never signed NDA as a staff on multiple forums. However, I have signed NDA as a freelancer.