If you hire a contractor for a project in which they will have access to private information, such as intellectual property or customer data, you may be concerned about confidentiality. Intangible assets, such as trade secrets, are valuable to you or your business, so you must take steps to protect them.
When working with a contractor, include a confidentiality clause in your Independent Contractor Agreement to protect your information. This clause prohibits the contractor from sharing any of your confidential information. In this instance, confidential information means any private or proprietary data or information relating to you, whether business or personal, that is not generally known. Generally, it is expected that the release of confidential information could cause harm to you, the client.
Suppose you have already created an Independent Contractor Agreement that does not contain a confidentiality clause, and now you would like to take steps to protect private information. In this case, you do not have to create a new contractor agreement. Instead, you can have the contractor sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement or Confidentiality Agreement.