Nondisclosure Agreements

Asking a blogger, let alone anyone to really consider signing a NDA is really a dick move. What is an NDA well in short, it is a form that is signed in order for information to be passed between two parties. Sometimes you will find this when one company needs to crowd source a project or something like that. Why is it a dick move? Well, honestly, you are keeping someone from really speaking their mind, and giving input to the general public about the probability of investing into a sinking ship.

I recently was contracted with a company to give my honest feedback about a product. Now this is a famous world wide product, however, the item that I was asked to look at and give feedback on has A LOT OF FLAWS, yet production of this item is already underway. When I had brought up some of the issues that I had with said item I was basically told “oh well, it's not what we are looking for but ‘dearly noted’ so make sure not to include that in your evaluation or write up.” Thankfully my NDA has an expiration date in which time I will be posting more details about said item.

Companies want information from you, yet they want to give you the big ol middle finger before accepting your honest valued opinion. Now I know some NDA’s are to keep trade secrets. However, look how far that gets some companies. The minute their product launches, you have hundreds of other companies making the same exact product with their label on it for a fraction of the cost. With iPhone, I watched a video on YouTube the other day where a guy living in China went to their open air market place and had an iPhone 6s created for less than $125 USD when at the time the 6s was well over $600USD

All a NDA is doing besides keeping me from talking about your product to possible new investors, clients, or customers, is saying that you don't trust me. You think that if you really had that “million dollar” idea, that someone else hasn’t thought it up or has it in the works already, honestly you are not that unique. You are saying that I could have legal actions taken against me if your product or idea gets leaked, even if it's not my fault.

So before you go asking a product reviewer or blogger to sign a NDA or other related document, really think about what doing so is asking them. Its basically a shut up order that is not fair, nor good practice.