Confidentiality
Non–Disclosure of Confidential Information
You may not talk about clients outside of Treefrog.
The majority of the work going on at Treefrog is confidential, and you may be directly involved in it or exposed to it in passing. Please be cautious about discussing our business outside of work. Of course, this does not mean you should not talk about your job, but use common sense and discretion at all times. Lock all confidential materials before you leave each day or when not in your office. This is a simple, essential policy with no exceptions. Our clients’ and colleagues’ trust is the foundation of our business.
You must respect the confidentiality of all clients’, suppliers’, and Frogs’ information. Confidential information includes, but is not limited to:
- All financial, operational, or statistical information that has not been publicly disclosed about Treefrog
- Client lists, prospective client lists, trade or business secrets, pricing policies, consulting, training and sale methods, operating and marketing systems, human resource management systems, and computer hardware or software
- The present, contemplated and future services, marketing, and sale of Treefrog’s products
- Any material or information, whatever its nature and form, relating to ideas, copyrightable works, discoveries, inventions, trade secrets, improvements, products, devices, designs, processes, methods, programs, apparatus, technologies and uses thereof, product plans, prices or costs, research, technical and manufacturing, or commercial activities
- Memoranda, records, reports, notes, notebooks, data, plans, specifications, data files, software, flowcharts and all other documents, photographs, recordings in the form of disks or other media
- Any information related to work products, as defined in this Code of Conduct, including their existence. Work products include, but are not limited to, any and all information or materials relating directly or indirectly to any of the products, potential products, processes, machines, and promotional and advertising materials or schemes that the Frog, alone or jointly, conceives, makes, develops, acquires, invents, discovers, improves, applies or reduces to practices while employed by Treefrog
- Copying, removing, allowing unauthorized access to any company equipment, documents, manuals, files, or mailing lists, or any form of distribution of company or client information or work products
You are expected to ensure that all security measures and protocols are followed to protect against breaches of security and, thus, confidentiality. The company will fully investigate any suspected breach of security or confidentiality. Frogs are expected to cooperate fully with any investigation. In circumstances where it is warranted, some Frogs may be required to sign specific confidentiality agreements.
Confidentiality
All affairs of the company and the professional relationship between the company and its clients are strictly confidential. The affairs of clients are private matters where the company acquires intimate knowledge in the course of acting on instructions. Information obtained must be held, without exception, in confidence.
All employees are required to sign an agreement for both confidentiality and privacy. Failure to do so will result in termination of the employment contract.
Information about clients and Frogs may not be used outside of work or for any personal purposes.
This includes, but is not limited to, using designs or code in external projects or as part of a personal portfolio.
Examples
- We once had a client threaten to sue us because an ex-Frog used the design he or she did, with help from other Frogs, as part of his or her portfolio. The design came up second on Google for the client’s company name. Not only did it undermine our work for the client (Treefrog was accused of outsourcing and “ripping the client off”), but the client
- We once had a Frog post something to his or her portfolio in which he or she had only been slightly involved. The Frog who did the majority of the work was extraordinarily insulted. His or her relationship with the first designer was permanently damaged. From thereon in, the two designers refused to work as a team.
- We once had a Frog use client code in an external project. When the client discovered this, Treefrog received a cease-and-desist. We claimed that it was not the client’s code, had it taken down, and let the developer go for moonlighting with a COI.
Why Confidentiality?
There are many reasons why:
- As a Canadian business, we are legally obligated in keeping client’s information confidential.
- Many of the clients we work with are very particular about privacy. Some companies are like this because of their own privacy regulations (e.g. a Hospital) and some because of Intellectual Property (e.g. a start-up). If any information from us leaks,
Examples
Privacy FAILS when the following occurs:
- Throwing away client files in the “regular” garbage
- Tweeting out about meeting with a client
- Any discussion about a client (outside of Treefrog) before they sign a contract with us
- Sharing information about Treefrog clientele with a spouse or friend.
Privacy NOT an issue when:
- We have an agreement with a client (usually by default, but this needs to be checked), we have the right to talk about them as a client.