A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also called a confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), confidentiality agreement or secrecy agreement, is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential materials or knowledge the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict from generalized use. In other words, it is a contract through which the parties agree not to disclose information covered by the agreement. In rare cases, the contract may state that the existence of the NDA itself cannot be disclosed. An NDA creates a confidential relationship between the parties to protect any type of trade secret. As such, an NDA can protect non-public business information
(abbreviation: NDA) A contract commonly used by computer companies to protect the confidentiality of unreleased products Software developers, reporters, and sometimes beta testers are often required to sign these before they are given access to either information about upcoming products or the product itself