Employee Confidentiality Agreement

sqooka

Hi all, I would like to get some opinions about something, and of course I'm aware any responses are not legal advice.
Say an employee confidentiality agreement contains the following clause:

"Except as required for the bona fide performance of my duties or as the company may otherwise consent in writing, I will not use, duplicate, publish, or disclose at any time, either during or after my employment, any information or material relating to the company or its associated companies' and operations’ businesses or other activities (including without limitation any third party information disclosed to the company) that are not generally available, known, or used by others, or the utility or value of which is not generally known or recognized as standard practice, whether or not the underlying details are in the public domain, including without limitation, documentation and reports, correspondence, drawings, plans, formulae, compilations, programs, devices, inventions, designs, methods, techniques, marketing and commercial strategies, processes, data, concepts and know-how, whether or not conceived, originated, discovered, or developed in whole or in part by me (such information and material hereinafter collectively called "company Information"). I understand and acknowledge that any company Information is the company's sole property and as such, is secret and confidential."

I want to know a few things. If someone copies work files to an external hard drive purely for the purpose of carrying out their work at home, not for an insidious purposes, are they protected from litigation? Can someone also clarify the following : If the employee has never received any clear instruction about what their duties are in the form of a written job description, does this make them more vulnerable (i.e. as they have no formal description of their duties how could they claim anything is done to allow them to perform their duties) or less vulnerable? Does this only apply to information which is not generally known or available, I couldn't tell if I'm misinterpreting it? Lastly, is it enough to simply delete all data to protect from any litigation?

Blackrockcomet

Be careful. Most big companies have technology to either track(the files downloaded are notified to a superior) or block external hard drives being inserted to company pcs. It's quite common in law firms now too.
Also, if you illegally take information and then delete it, this does not excuse the original crime.

I've answered the easy questions but to get proper answers to your situation, you need to talk to an employment law specialist. They will be able to provide specific advice and given your problems, it will be money well spent

sqooka

Thanks for your response. As I said, the knowledge of the company about this activity was never an issue though, this was done purely for work purposes without anything ever being mentioned about it.