How to handle confidentiality?

[andrecmoi]

Hi,

I would like to know how I can make sure the seller I’m buying from doesn’t disclose confidential information. I can make them sign a non-disclosure agreement, but then how can I be sure they actually signed it? I mean some accounts are held by many designers for example so how can I prove that the person who signed the contract is the one I’m actually dealing with.
I might be paranoiac, but I’m curious to know how to address this issue.

Thanks.

[misscrystal]

Hello, this isn’t the best place to assure confidentiality. You can’t see who you are buying from nor can you even get his or her real name. If this is something that is important to you then you need to go elsewhere such as a real live person or company that you can deal with in person.
It is against fiverr terms of service to share names or addresses. So asking sellers to sign anything won’t work.

[andrecmoi]

Thanks for your reply. I didn’t know it was against a TOS to tell your actual name ! So I guess the only thing I can do is protect the projects with copyrights.

[misscrystal]

I don’t know what kind of project you are working on but if you pick a very highly reviewed seller who does tons of work they may have less incentive to reveal anything since they do this kind of work every day.

[andrecmoi]

Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.

[fastcopywriter]

Sellers aren’t here to gossip, they’re here to make money. They have better things to do than talk about their clients.

With that said, I’ve had some buyers who don’t give me the link of their product/services. They might tell me, “write an e-mail for an personal injury lawfirm” and I might use placeholders such as ACME Law or John Doe. So there are ways you can be anonymous here.

However, if you need a logo, you’re gonna have to reveal the company name or initials.

But let’s be negative for a minute and assume the worst, let’s say that you hire me and I talk about you. How will that hurt you? I have no friends in the media, I’m not going to write a press release and let Fox News know about it, and even if I did, most press releases are ignored. So you see? You have nothing to lose. In fact, if your company was famous and people found out you hired someone on Fiverr, well, you’d look great, Fiverr would look great, and you’d get much needed publicity. So you see? There are no downsides here.

[misscrystal]

Maybe it’s a huge publicly traded company and it would make headlines like
"Amagon hired fiverr designer for logo".

[flatpp]

I have worked with a lot of buyers in top positions and high profile companies and they just ask me to keep it confidential. I don’t sign NDA’s or anything like that. I just keep my mouth shut. Besides, I see no advantage of telling the world “I made a PowerPoint for so and so”. Although, it makes me feel good when people pick me over others. Especially, considering their position.

Just remember to tell the seller not to include it in their gig portfolio.

[tarnia]

Can you not simply sign a NDA scan it and send it back through fiverr system? Then you are surely not breaking any rules and the buyers mind can be at rest?

[misscrystal]

Actually you would be breaking the rules if you signed your real name.
You are never supposed to tell your real name to anyone. I know a few sellers do use their real names here but they have occasionally had problems from that or been penalized in some way.

[lissa_1]

I agree with Fastcopywriter and others on confidentiality.

No one, with a good reputation here, really wants to bring trouble upon themselves or their clients. Being professional and having a good rapport between sellers and buyers is worth the time invested. If you have a large project that you are shopping for, you could order a small one and get a sense of the seller’s work ethics and product quality.

You may be able to compartmentalize your work and order from multiple sellers that you feel good about. If you have many sellers and no one gets all of the work, you can limit the amount of knowledge that any of the sellers is privy too. I do understand that compartmentalization isn’t always possible, in some cases it might be. I am sure that a certain amount of research and design could be handled that way.

Be creative and anonymize your work as much as possible.

The use of Fastcopywriter’s suggested “placeholders” is great for this. If it’s a logo, you could say, “My company sells things you can find at ‘Jane’s Widget, Gadget, Bait, and Tackle Emporium’ but we also sell ‘Digital Doughnut Cakes’ and ‘Flippity Jingle Clappers.’ We offer free product upgrades to our clients who come into our showroom. I would like to order a unique logo that represents my company, products, and our own unique corporate culture.”

In written content, you may be able to use made-up words to keep your company name or product names anonymous.

My best advice, find sellers who have been around for a while and have good reputations. Be creative and only say what you have to and no more.

[magy1808]

Agree with your seller on buying commercial license or copyrights. It will cost you more but that is a way…

[contentcruise]

If confidentiality is important to you, I suggest trying out your sellers with not too confidential jobs to weigh how much trust you can give. Some sellers can be very dependable. But its not the best to be too exposed.

[alysmcdonough]

This happened to me today.

Buyer messages me saying “Oh just want to check it’s $20 for you to do about an hour of transcribing within 24 hours oh and by the way you’re dealing with sensitive information so I will ask if you can sign an agreement.”

I said, “Yeah but it will be $5 to sign the agreement, and I can just sign it, I can’t give out any personal information. Oh and what gave you the impression it was $20 to do one hour of audio, it’s $60.”

They said, “$5? What? I get my freelances to sign this blah blah blah.” (oh and they said their addition was poor too)

I’m like “I have to read, sign, and send the agreement, it’s not free.”

Okay no problem blah blah blah.

Should have stopped there as there were enough red flags to suggest this wasn’t going to go well. But no, I’m an idiot, a helpful idiot.

Decide to do it. Open up the agreement, it’s 3 pages long, and go, “Woah what, really?” It was like they wanted my first born child and to know what color underwear I was wearing on a daily basis. Plus at the bottom of the page it asked for name, address, phone etc.

In all honesty this document was probably created here to make the seller feel important. I’ve done some searching and I see they are releasing a book and the cover that was designed here and how they were less than happy with some fellow sellers.

Wrote back and went, “Um it’s a bit too heavy for a $65 order so I’ll pass.”

They then said, 'Thanks for wasting my time.:

I said go away. And they said a few other choice things and the acronym SMH. I had to google it 'cause I didn’t know what it meant.

So yes, I reckon anyone that self important I can’t be arsed dealing with anyway so hmm yeah anyway back to work.

[Guest wowyou]

I agree that Fiverr is probably not the place to have super confidential work completed. However, a seller doesn’t have to sign their real name for a contract to be legally binding.

The seller could sign with their Fiverr username and still be liable for breach of contract. So the contract signature line would read something like: “As agreed between Fiverr.com seller blah blah and Fiverr.com buyer blah blah blah.” We all have a paper trail via PayPal or Payoneer or whatever. The public doesn’t necessarily know our real names but Fiverr does. If something became serious enough, the Courts could ask Fiverr to reveal personally identifying information of a particular user. And that information could be used to take legal action. It would be a huge hassle though so if something is that critically confidential then this is probably not the platform.

I’m not a lawyer but I’ve dealt with many NDAs from both sides so I I think this is how it works. But when in doubt seek real legal advice.

[misscrystal]

The buyer would need a way to prove that confidentiality was breached by the seller. I really can’t see how that would be possible. People could be using the wrong name on fiverr, others could be using the name of the person on fiverr, etc.

[Guest wowyou]

It would be tough for sure but with the right legal team anything is possible right? :)…

But honestly having a seller sign an NDA is probably not worth it.

And, anyway Fiverr offers protection via its TOS. Once work is delivered the seller officially relinquishes ownership unless he/she expressly states otherwise on his/her Gig description. Further, Fiverr also sort of has a confidentiality component to their TOS already, which says “Sellers further confirm that whatever information they receive from the buyer, which is not public domain, shall be kept confidential and shall not be shared or used for any purpose whatsoever other than for the delivery of the ordered work to the buyer.”

So an NDA is actually not all that necessary.

[alysmcdonough]

One of the many things on this buyers ridiculous NDA was if you used the information yourself to create a business WITHIN 5 YEARS OF DOING THE JOB HERE. Eg if the person who gave me grief the other night about wasting their time had content about a get rich quick scheme for example and I transcribed it, and then within 5 years later I opened a business of my own based on that (probably information I’ve transcribed here thousands of times) they could take action. Or if I went and put it up on the internet for all to see etc.

I used to work for a large online trading company and when there was a request from a police officer for information regarding a fraud that had occurred for example we were able to provide the information we had on the person in question.

Like I said. Not worth it.

[Guest wowyou]

For them to include a FIVE YEAR non-compete clause, they must have thought their idea was made of gold. Ha ha! Sounds like you made the right decision in passing on that one.

[alysmcdonough]

I’ve taken out the identifying info and also noted a grammatical error in part B when I wasn’t looking hard, so there’s probably more. The person who sent this was a consultant. I found their book cover and a nasty seller review when I googled their user ID. (one was for content writing giggle) Oh and remember this is what they expected me to read and sign for free for a $60 job. Bite me.

RECITALS
A. The Receiving Party understands that the Disclosing Party has disclosed or may disclose confidential and sensitive information relating to and exposure to its intellectual property. Confidential information, policies and contact information, which to the extent previously, presently, or subsequently disclosed to the Receiving Party is hereinafter referred to as “Proprietary Information” of the Disclosing Party.
Confidentiality agreement and Non-Competition.
B. The Receiving Party acknowledges that he/she has been informed that it is the policy of the Company to maintain as secret and confidential all information (i) relating to the ideas, plans, products, processes, designs and/or systems used by the Company and (ii) relating to the customers (including without limitation, customer lists, call lists and all data about customers) and employees, consultants, independent contractors and suppliers of the Company (all such information hereinafter referred to as “Confidential Information”). The receiving party further acknowledges that such Confidential Information is of great value to the Company. The parties confirm that it is reasonably necessary to protect the Company’s goodwill that the receiving party shall agree will not directly or indirectly (except where authorized by the Company for the benefit of the Company), disclosure information unless approved and agreed upon for or on behalf of the disclosing party or any Person.

C. The receiving party shall not copy any Confidential Information except as needed as authorized hereunder, and in such case shall make copies only on the property of the Company

OPERATIVE PROVISIONS

1. In consideration of the disclosure of Proprietary Information by the Disclosing Party, the Receiving Party hereby agrees: (i) to hold the Proprietary Information in strict confidence and to take all reasonable precautions to protect such Proprietary Information (including, without limitation, all precautions the Receiving Party employs with respect to its own confidential materials), (ii) not to disclose any such Proprietary Information or any information derived therefrom to any third person, (iii) not to make any use whatsoever at any time of such Proprietary Information except to evaluate internally its relationship with the Disclosing Party, and (iv) not to copy or reverse engineer any such Proprietary Information. The Receiving Party shall procure that its employees, agents and sub-contractors to whom Proprietary Information is disclosed or who have access to Proprietary Information sign a nondisclosure or similar agreement in content substantially similar to this Agreement
2. Without granting any right or license, the Disclosing Party agrees that the foregoing shall not apply with respect to any information after five years following the disclosure thereof or any information that the Receiving Party can document (i) is or becomes (through no improper action or inaction by the Receiving Party or any affiliate, agent, consultant or employee) generally available to the public, or (ii) was in its possession or known by it prior to receipt from the Disclosing Party as evidenced in writing, except to the extent that such information was unlawfully appropriated, or (iii) was rightfully disclosed to it by a third party, or (iv) was independently developed without use of any Proprietary Information of the Disclosing Party. The Receiving Party may make disclosures required by law or court order provided the Receiving Party uses diligent reasonable efforts to limit disclosure and has allowed the Disclosing Party to seek a protective order.
3. Immediately upon the written request by the Disclosing Party at any time, the Receiving Party will return to the Disclosing Party all Proprietary Information and all documents or media containing any such Proprietary Information and any and all copies or extracts thereof, save that where such Proprietary Information is a form incapable of return or has been copied or transcribed into another document, it shall be destroyed or erased, as appropriate.
4. The Receiving Party understands that nothing herein (i) requires the disclosure of any Proprietary Information or (ii) requires the Disclosing Party to proceed with any transaction or relationship.
5. The Receiving Party further acknowledges and agrees that no representation or warranty, express or implied, is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by the Disclosing Party, or by any of its respective directors, officers, employees, agents or advisers, as to, or in relation to, the accuracy of completeness of any Proprietary Information made available to the Receiving Party or its advisers; it is responsible for making its own evaluation of such Proprietary Information.
6. The failure of either party to enforce its rights under this Agreement at any time for any period shall not be construed as a waiver of such rights. If any part, term or provision of this Agreement is held to be illegal or unenforceable neither the validity, nor enforceability of the remainder of this Agreement shall be affected. Neither Party shall assign or transfer all or any part of its rights under this Agreement without the consent of the other Party. This Agreement may not be amended for any other reason without the prior written agreement of both Parties. This Agreement constitutes the entire understanding between the Parties relating to the subject matter hereof unless any representation or warranty made about this Agreement was made fraudulently and, save as may be expressly referred to or referenced herein, supersedes all prior representations, writings, negotiations or understandings with respect hereto.
7. This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Disclosing Party is located (or if the Disclosing Party is based in more than one country, the country in which its headquarters are located) (the “Territory”) and the parties agree to submit disputes arising out of or in connection with this Agreement to the non-exclusive of the courts in the Territory.

[misscrystal]

I would require them to buy a $100 custom order just to read that.

[alysmcdonough]

insane, right!

[kanefire]

Actually you would be breaking the rules if you signed your real name.

You are never supposed to tell your real name to anyone. I know a few sellers do use their real names here but they have occasionally had problems from that or been penalized in some way.

its pretty silly considering other freelance sites require full name disclosure and verification… maybe thats one reason fiverr is dropping off

[mae_creativity]

I’m curious what type of gigs people are buying where the info is so sensitive.
I used to have a transcription gig here, and an order for that gig was the only time I’ve been told this is confidential.
They just said "I need your promise for 100% confidentiality."
I wrote back that of course, and once I deliver the transcription I will delete the audio + text from my computer.
The audio was an hour long, and mentioned absolutely no details about anyone/thing. I never understood why it was confidential.

So now I’m curious. . .