Copyright Aid

Hi,

I have a question. I have a lot of friends/friends of friends who need their documents translated into different languages (mainly into English) and i thought this will be my next business idea. Basically I would have clients who need their documents translated and I would find translators who I would pay for translating those documents. I would charge the clients a bit more than what the translator would charge me. My profit would be the difference between the two. I would be responsible for finding clients and for the marketing, website etc.. I would be dealing with clients directly, translators would be dealing only with me directly, not with clients.

Now my question is - I need to ensure that all the documents sent to me by clients and then sent over to the translators by me will be kept confidential. There might be a case that those documents will be sensitive and private so I need to ensure that translators will keep it confidential and not share any documents or information with anyone. How can I ensure this? Do i need to write certain agreement? Please note, the translators will not be my employees, I will only pay them for the services based on the invoices they send me.

Hi laurieeee,

The standard way to do this is to use a non disclosure agreement usually known as an NDA. You could probably use a standard one for all translators and all types of documents.

The way it works is that once the translator has signed an NDA he/she is then bound by a duty of confidence to not disclose anything they have to work on, and if they do, they can be sued for breach of confidence. The important thing is that they know in advance that what they are being given access to is confidential, and that is achieved by the NDA.

You can find standard forms of NDA online, but it might be better to get a solicitor to draw one up which is tailored to your specific needs.