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Outsourcing: To protect trade secrets, hiring offline is way to go?

by jon99
6 replies
The need for privacy and protection of intellectual property should be a big deal to all businesses.

Can you really trust sensitive business information, or your trade secret to someone you hire online? Is NDA really effective in protecting you? They can simply use another identity to create another competitor to your business, and you might never even going to realize he/she was once your ex-employee!

For all the general tasks like writing, SEO, design, editing maybe yes, but "trade secret" stuffs really?

With that in mind, do you think offline hiring is the best way to go when dealing with "trade secret" tasks?
#hiring #offline #outsourcing #protect #secrets #trade
  • Profile picture of the author IanGreenwood
    I think even signing an NDA with a freelancer - unless they live in your own country - is an effort in futility. Who has the resources to instigate an international law suit to go after a freelancer in another country?

    I have heard (through a friend of a friend???) of a IM guru who paid a freelance writer to write unique content and paid him, over the months, thousands of dollars for articles, blog posts, and other content pieces.

    Later he discovered that the writer was also posting the same content on a PLR site and was selling this guys "unique" content as PLR. The writer said that it was his copyright material and he could do whatever he liked with it. The guru of course argued that the agreement was for "unique" content. The writer said it was "unique" because he created it!

    BUT... at the end of the day there was nothing the guru could actually do about it. He just had to swallow the lesson, stop using the guy, and move on.

    I think the key here might be to NEVER let any one employee / outsourcer / freelancer have access to every part of your business, unless they have proven themselves trustworthy over a number of years. So if you're dealing with freelancers then compartmentalise their functions and jobs to isolate them.

    At least then if they're going to walk off with your secrets it might limit the damage.
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  • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
    If you use someone reputable, with a track record, it won't matter where they are located. Otherwise, if it is a big concern use someone in your same country.

    A NDA can be very effective and the penalties for misappropriating trade secrets in most states are severe. In the "real world" such contracts are signed all the time without a problem. The real issue is who you are dealing with. If your niche is "IM" it is a cesspool of fraud, which means you need to be careful, and means a NDA is even more important.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Ian, it sounds like the gooroo in your example screwed up by not having a "work for hire" contract with the writer. Such a contract should spell out who owns the rights to the finished product, as well as definitions for terms with use-specific meanings like "unique".

      Even with a strong NDA, if someone is going to screw you over, they'll screw you over. Like locks on a door, the NDA keeps the honest people honest.
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  • Profile picture of the author EllenMoore
    Originally Posted by jon99 View Post

    The need for privacy and protection of intellectual property should be a big deal to all businesses.

    Can you really trust sensitive business information, or your trade secret to someone you hire online? Is NDA really effective in protecting you? They can simply use another identity to create another competitor to your business, and you might never even going to realize he/she was once your ex-employee!

    For all the general tasks like writing, SEO, design, editing maybe yes, but "trade secret" stuffs really?

    With that in mind, do you think offline hiring is the best way to go when dealing with "trade secret" tasks?
    Unfortunately, I think that trade secrets are never safe, so you should have a strategy in case they are disclosed. Also, no matter if you hire online or directly, get to know people and test their loyalty before trusting them with your secrets.
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      Hiring offline does not necessarily provide any better protection than online methods. Inadvertent disclosure by employees/contractors can be a larger problem than outright stealing. Besides requiring everyone to sign confidentially agreements (including full explanation of the law and severe penalties involved), you can take other measures such as extensive entrance pre-screening and exit interviews, restricting access to sensitive information on a need-to-know basis, watermarking sensitive documents as "confidential", establishing a comprehensively written security policy, and perhaps even consider investing in commercially available administrative, legal, technical and physical safeguards.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Jonas Phil VA
    Hiring offline isn't necessarily a foolproof way of protecting "trade secrets". There are no fool proof ways to completely safeguard your trade secrets. Thieves will steal and honest men will stay honest. It all boils down to how easy your going to make it for thieves to steal that information from you and how much are you willing to trust your employees/partners with your business. It's not the same for everyone and how much (or how little) your willing to outsource would depend on your comfort level.
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