Protection of Trade Secrets and Confidential Information -Responsibility of each employee
Trade secrets and confidential information are vital assets for any business and protecting them is crucial for the continued success of the organisation. If not protected, they can be stolen, leaked, misused by the competitors and other parties, often leading to loss of revenue, reputation and market share. Moreover, ensuring the confidentiality is also necessary to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and to maintain trust with clients, partners, customers and shareholders.
A Company’s trade secrets may consist of any design, product or information that is used in its business and that gives it an opportunity to obtain an advantage over its competitors. This can also include business research, new product plans, strategic objectives, any type of marketing or sales material or information, any unpublished financial or pricing information, employee, customer and vendor lists, and information regarding customer requirements, preferences, business habits and plans.
The first step towards protection of trade secrets and confidential information is awareness and sensitiveness towards it. Employees must evaluate the various repercussions before sharing any information with any of their stakeholders.
Our Code of Conduct policy obligates each employee to:
- Not disclose confidential information to other employees of the Company or third parties except on a ‘need to know’ or ‘need to use’ basis and, in those instances, with confidentiality designations and other data protection mechanisms such as password protection or encryption, as appropriate; and not to otherwise disclose this information.
- Not to engage third parties to handle confidential information without an appropriate review of the security and information technology controls of the third party
- Not to post or discuss on publicly available websites or social media sites
- Not to use the information for their own benefit or the unauthorized benefit of persons outside of the Company.
Our Code empowers us to respect the trade secrets of our organisation and ensure that every possible effort is made to protect them. Awareness is spread on this aspect from time to time through emailers and other means.