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Keeping another individual’s or organization's information classified is known as confidentiality. Confidentiality agreements are a tool to implement confidentiality.

Restrictions are levied on some kinds of information through confidentiality agreements. Some professionals are legally required to keep the information disclosed by clients confidential.
The legal and the medical field are the two most common examples of professional environments where confidentiality is expected.

Legal Confidentiality
For lawyers, anything related to representing a client must be kept confidential, according to the law.
The duty of confidentiality for lawyers is beyond just the evidentiary privilege between attorneys and their clients. This applies only to the interactions between them.
The duty, along with the privilege, enables the clients to be truthful regarding their cases. This gives attorneys the opportunity to represent their clients ardently.
When clients share information with their attorneys in criminal cases, attorneys are required to keep it confidential, even if it is about former crimes committed by them.
This allows clients to be frank to their lawyers without being afraid of legal charges against them.

Patient Confidentiality
In the medical and mental health fields, a crucial factor required while taking care of people is confidentiality.
By law, doctors along with facilities that provide healthcare and their employees must keep information related to their patients confidential.
Even though confidentiality requirements can be traced back to the Hippocratic oath, confidentiality-related laws have become sterner in the past few years.
In some specific circumstances, in the mental health and medical fields, it is required for medical professionals to inform an organization. This is when a patient may be a danger to oneself or others.
Example, local health departments must be informed about particular communicable diseases.

Confidentiality Agreement
A party can establish what information can and cannot be disclosed to other parties legally through a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or a confidentiality agreement.
Basically, when a person wants to share information with another person but does not want it to be disclosed to others, a confidentiality agreement is drawn.
The most common instances of confidentiality agreements being used are in business-related relationships. These may include specifications of employment, trade secrets, etc.

There are Two Ways of making Confidentiality Agreements
1. Unilateral agreement
2. Bilateral agreement

Breach of Confidentiality
Breaking confidentiality can result in a civil prosecution against the violator of the agreement, making it a common-law tort.
Depending on the amount of damage faced due to the breach, violators can be commanded by law to stop sharing confidential information and be asked for substantial monetary damages.
In case of confidentiality breaches concerning legal or medical data, violators may be penalized by the body that provided them with their professional license or by employers.

Breach of Confidentiality – Example
The "Coca-Cola" case is the most typical example when it comes to a confidentiality breach.
PepsiCo was provided trade secrets of "Coke" by 3 of Coca-Cola's employees. The charges issued against them were that of stealing secrets that also included the sample of a brand new drink that Coca-Cola was developing.

A letter was received by PepsiCo that offered it with “detailed and confidential” data about Coca-Cola.
The executive administrative assistant at Coke, along with other employees, were found responsible by the FBI.
The former received eight years as a penalty, and the others received five years and a $40,000 restitution fine.

Confidentiality in the Workplace
1. Confidentiality Clauses
Employees are legally bound to keep confidential information private by confidentiality clauses in NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and employment contracts.

2. Confidentiality Training
Employees must be aware of the rules. This can be ensured through short courses on policies and issues of the company, lectures, or online training.

3. Mobile Phone Policy
The allowed and restricted uses of mobile phones in a place of work, along with the consequences of violating the instructions, must be covered in mobile phone policies.

This video is on Confidentiality and it has the following sub-topics.

Time Stamps

0:00 Introduction to Confidentiality
0:16 What is Confidentiality?
0:44 Legal Confidentiality
1:28 Patient Confidentiality
2:18 Confidentiality Agreement
3:17 Breach of Confidentiality
3:47 Breach of Confidentiality – Example
4:27 Confidentiality in the Workplace
5:08 Consequences of Breach
6:08 Ways to protect your Business against breach of Confidentiality

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