RE: Documentation confidentiality level policy

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Technical Writing Plus wrote:
 
> Actually, the group that is called public is far bigger than the group
that
> consists of customers, so it would not be customers only = public. Not
at
> all.
> 
> I suppose that the public could even be not inclusive of potential
> customers. In other words, 'the public' has more, many more, classes
and
> groups than just customer and potential customer.
> 
> I do not feel that this is an odd way of viewing the situation.

I guess I wasn't sufficiently clear. My point has nothing to do with the
sizes/memberships of the classes/groups. Presumably, document
confidentiality levels address who may see a document and who may not
see it. They delineate different degrees of access restriction, from
none to however tight the company wants.

Documents are restricted to those who've signed NDAs or the equivalent
because they contain information of value to the company, and the value
would be reduced/lost if the information became public knowledge. The
size of the group to which you distribute a doc is irrelevant -- if
there's nothing to prevent them from redistributing it, you've made the
document public. 

Years ago, we had manuals that said "Proprietary and Confidential" in
the footer. Then we sent them to prospective customers (no NDA) and made
them available on the website. Corporate legal reminded us to remove
that statement because information that you don't safeguard isn't
"Proprietary and Confidential."

You said that "the company has no expectation" that "customers only"
documents won't be redistributed. That means that a "customers only"
document is no more safeguarded than a "public" document. 

What if someone assumes that "customers only" actually means what the
name suggests and slaps that label on a document that shouldn't become
public knowledge? 
 

Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------







 

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