What is a confidentiality agreement? (+ free NDA templates)

Using some type of NDA form (non-disclosure agreement) is essential in some types of businesses. They help secure confidential information about your work or ensure that there is no unauthorized disclosure of any intellectual property that belongs to you. These agreement contracts are a legal requirement for businesses to operate under state laws legally and should be signed as understood and agreed to by the parties.

This article will help you understand in what circumstances you need to have an NDA and how to easily create one with free templates to use. Now, without further ado, let us start with the definition of an NDA.

The definition of a confidentiality agreement

A confidentiality agreement is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties that states they will not disclose or profit from confidential information. They are usually used in the business world (about trade secrets or proprietary information), where it is essential to protect internal information from public knowledge.

It can also be called a confidentiality statement, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), a confidentiality clause, a proprietary information agreement (PIA), a non-disclosure form, or a secrecy agreement (SA). There is also a mutual non-disclosure agreement (also known as bilateral NDA) that is used when both parties agree not to disclose confidential information.

When should you use a confidentiality agreement?

One of the most common types of information protected by confidentiality agreements is proprietary business information, such as trade secrets and business strategies. This includes technical or commercial information such as details of creating a product or market research data of the company.

In other words, you should use a type of employee non-disclosure agreement when disclosing confidential information would cause you or your company to suffer loss. You should use an NDA when there is data or documents with information including:

What should be included in a confidentiality agreement?

Even when you are creating a simple confidentiality agreement, there are some aspects you should include. Including these points will make your form legal and legit, so do not skip over them. The 5 key elements of non-disclosure Agreements are:

 The party requesting the NDA typically makes the description section as broad as possible to protect company secrets, intellectual details, and proprietary information. Therefore, mention everything you think is related to the case.

In this section, identify what should be done or refrained from. This part of the NDA needs to be clearly explained so the party requiring confidentiality can sue for damages if the other party breaches the NDA. 

There are some instances where sharing information would not breach the NDA. It could be in the normal course of business or as part of a legal proceeding. Identify this information as well.

the term of the agreement should be clearly defined to avoid any misinterpretation if a breach of the agreement occurs. You can give a definite time or do not specify a time.

The consequences of a breach should also be made clear. In some cases, the other party may be sued, held responsible for financial compensation, etc.

How can I create a confidentiality agreement for my business online?

When you use the right form builder, such as forms.app, creating a client confidentiality agreement or a confidentiality agreement for employees is quite effortless. As a business that requires employee confidentiality to secure its business details, using a fast and safe online form can be a great help. And forms.app is what you are looking for with its smart features and many templates. Let us see how to create an NDA using forms.app:

  1  - Go to forms.app and log into your account. If you do not have an account, you can easily create one in a matter of minutes.

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  2  - Go to templates and choose the best one for you.

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  3  - You can add questions and fields if you want.

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  4  - Go to the design section and choose professional colors that suit your business.

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  5  - Click on the eye icon and see the end result.

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  6  - You can add a welcome page and thank-you page.

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  7  - Once you finalize the form, save it, and you can immediately use it.

Free non-disclosure agreement templates

When you know what you want, you can start doing it from scratch and pick every detail one by one. But why not save time and energy by using the free and ready-to-go templates of forms.app. You can edit them as much as you want, and you can also use them as they are. 

forms.app has more than 750 templates to choose from. And there are different options to choose from when it comes to non-disclosure agreement templates as well. Decide what kind of agreement contract you want to have, and go through NDA templates without trouble! Here are some of the few NDA templates:

Non-Disclosure Agreement Form

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