Managing confidentiality within a company is a fundamental issue. The cosmetics industry is a field in which innovation is rife, competition is fierce and the economic stakes are colossal. This is a major issue at several levels. So it’s important to secure it. Estelle Dehier, from Labosphère, explains.
As an independent research and development laboratory, working on specifications for all types of customer, confidentiality is part of our day-to-day business.
In order to facilitate exchanges with our various partners, the first document we complete is the reciprocal confidentiality agreement.
Here is a non-exhaustive overview of the issues surrounding confidentiality.
The Business Code
Depending on the type of partner we are working with, we can propose our model confidentiality agreement or have it “imposed” by the partner. The confidentiality agreement can be unilateral, bilateral or tripartite, with a limited duration for a well-defined service or extended. We can go as far as signing contracts for certain work.
As a subcontractor for research and development work, we code each of our customers internally.
The concern for confidentiality and data protection may go as far as prohibiting the brand name from being mentioned on samples sent for analysis, or communication via e-mail addresses that do not contain the company’s name.
Exchanges of sensitive data may, for example, be authorised with a single contact at the client company, as this is the only person authorised to access the data.
Some brands may also require that data relating to work carried out be …
