Confidentiality Agreements protect your proprietary information from being shared with your competitors. Anyone who is privy to your company's protected information could potentially share that information with your competitors or could use the information to become a competitor. While Confidentiality Agreements, often called Non-disclosure Agreements, can be difficult to enforce, they can offer your company some protection.
Besides employees, you may ask the following to sign a Confidentiality Agreement:
Vendors
Clients
Freelance or contract workers
Merger and acquisition stakeholders