NDAs Are Out of Control. Here’s What Needs to Change; Harvard Business Review, January 30, 2018

Orly Lobel, Harvard Business Review; NDAs Are Out of Control. Here’s What Needs to Change

[Kip Currier: Came across this article about Nondisclosure Agreements (NDAs) while updating a Trade Secrets lecture for this week. The author raises a number of thought-provoking ethical and policy issues to consider. Good information for people in all sectors to think about when faced with signing an NDA and/or managing NDAs.]

"Nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs, which are increasingly common in employment contracts, suppress employee speech and chill creativity. The current revelations surfacing years of harassment in major organizations are merely the tip of the iceberg.

New data shows that over one-third of the U.S. workforce is bound by an NDA. These contracts have grown not only in number but also in breadth. They not only appear in settlements after a victim of sexual harassment has raised her voice but also are now routinely included in standard employment contracts upon hiring. At the outset, NDAs attempt to impose several obligations upon a new employee. They demand silence, often broadly worded to protect against speaking up against corporate culture or saying anything that would portray the company and its executives in a negative light. NDAs also attempt to expand the definitions of secrecy to cover more information than the traditional bounds of trade secret law, in effect preventing an employee from leaving their employer and continuing to work in the same field."