| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Do you sign confidentiality agreements before seeing the potential project? Thread poster: Diana Coada (X)
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Sarah McDowell 
Canada
Local time: 08:30
Member (2012)
Russian to English
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I once had to sign a confidentiality agreement just to do a test, of all things.
| | | | Diana Coada (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:30
Portuguese to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Thank you, Neil | Feb 2, 2013 |
Neil Coffey wrote:
It's understandable that before seeing a highly confidential document, you might need to sign an NDA.
However, if they can't even (a) give you a word count and rough description of the project, (b) agree an approximate in-principle budget, and (c) assign the project to you in principle, then in my experience alarm bells would be ringing that this is essentially going to be a waste of time.
If there's really an actual project that a busy client/agency is keen to assign to you, then the NDA should be a minor niggle in the more interesting and pressing procedure of sorting out the actual translation, not something that is overshadowing things.
I completely agree! Glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way.
What's wrong with saying ''The word count is X and we'd like to know your rates before we send you the NDA and the document itself''?
| | | | Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 09:30
Romanian to English
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| a different approach to the question | Feb 3, 2013 |
Agency Y just won a contract with the Department of Justice in the US(FBI, US Attorney, US Secret Service). The agency wants to make sure it has available a certain number of translators/language. It is normal to have NDA's in their files. I don't see anything wrong with that.
Lee
| | | | | Agree to sign the NDA, but ... | Feb 3, 2013 |
In the situation you describe, I'd agree to sign the NDA before receiving the proposed text for translation, but I'd make sure first that the agency had agreed to my rate and my terms of payment in written form, even if only in an email. It is a nuisance to have to deal with all the paperwork, but I've obtained several good clients this way.
Best wishes,
Jenny
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OlafK
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:30
English to German
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| similar situation | Feb 3, 2013 |
I had a similar situation, not with an NDA but with a translation test.
I was contacted by an Italian agency looking for literary editors. The PM asked for my CV with "evidence" of my past experience and if I was prepared to do a small translation test (which allegedly the publisher required).
I didn't bother with sending a CV because mine isn't up to date. I just sent a few links to published work and told the PM that I was rather busy at the moment and would need to discuss rate... See more I had a similar situation, not with an NDA but with a translation test.
I was contacted by an Italian agency looking for literary editors. The PM asked for my CV with "evidence" of my past experience and if I was prepared to do a small translation test (which allegedly the publisher required).
I didn't bother with sending a CV because mine isn't up to date. I just sent a few links to published work and told the PM that I was rather busy at the moment and would need to discuss rates and time scale before doing a test. I also said that between the rates publishers are prepared to pay and the rates that I charge there wouldn't be much scope for an agency to earn any money.
The silly PM insisted I do the test BEFORE discussing rated and time scale and sent me the test anyway.
To be honest, I had decided that this was a waste of time right from the start but I always feel obliged to reply. Anway, I was curious and opened the file with the test. I was wondering what kind of book this was. In order to find out I googled a text passage and found that there had been kudoz questions in three different languages regarding this text over a period of two or three years.
It was obvious that this agency didn't have a project they needed me for, there was no publisher requiring a test and their rates and payment terms would be so ridiculous they couldn't mention them beforehand. So why waste my time in the first place? Did they hope to get me on their books?
I told the PM I wasn't interested. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No NDA before agreeing rates and getting basic info about the job | Feb 3, 2013 |
exactly
| | | | PolydactyLLC
United States
Local time: 09:30
Czech to English
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I agree with Alex Logo
"we get to this stage I need to know all the other details (word count, rate, deadline, subject) and only if those details are acceptable would I then go ahead and sign the NDA, so if they don't want to give me any details I see no point in signing the NDA"
I totally get that for intellectual property or for medical or legal translation you need to sign a confidentiality agreement, but if you guys research this better - anything leaked on it's own... See more I agree with Alex Logo
"we get to this stage I need to know all the other details (word count, rate, deadline, subject) and only if those details are acceptable would I then go ahead and sign the NDA, so if they don't want to give me any details I see no point in signing the NDA"
I totally get that for intellectual property or for medical or legal translation you need to sign a confidentiality agreement, but if you guys research this better - anything leaked on it's own (say your computer is stolen or your email is hacked) you will be held accountable. TIME matters how long you are bound and also if an inactive breach is binding, as in a case where you have no role in the breach. Ordinary translation projects where - for example - the information is a third party billing of medical documents I will not sign an NDA. Why? As listed above, my laptop could get lost, my email could be hacked and the NDA is forever binding I'm not interested in a legal dispute over a $10-$50 job. If I'm asked to sign an NDA for a TV project, translating intellectual property that pays me a whole lot more money and there is no confidential information of an individual legal or personal I will sign, but I read over all the parts very carefully. The time and inactive breach, exclusions, inactions and jurisdiction - all this stuff matters. I speak 8 languages, but I only provide Czech online. I'm quite picky with the work I accept. One year of graduate law studies helped lol ▲ Collapse
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