Why does hush money have such a negative connotation but a NDA doesn’t, honesty wouldn’t it be better because they get some cash too. I know I sound actually so dumb but please explain.
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A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is basically a contract, where one person says they won’t share information covered in the agreement with people who aren’t a part of that agreement. It is usually a neutral thing, and actually kind of common – a private company working on some new technology or program might make employees sign an NDA so they can keep information about the program secret. The government makes people sign an NDA before they can access classified information.
“Hush money” has a negative connotation because it is generally being paid to cover up some behavior that is illegal and/or unethical. It is basically a bribe.
If you’re asking because of recent events in the news, a big part of it has to do with who was paying the hush money (a presidential candidate) and the timing (during campaigning for the presidential elections). The main point here is that under any other circumstances it really wouldn’t have mattered except maybe to the guy’s spouse. However, he was running for president and actively trying to buy peoples’ silence to hide unethical behavior from the public to try to influence the vote. edit: I think even this isn’t 100% accurate, since there were also questions about how the money was recorded and appeared to be sent through business channels when it was a personal matter.
NDA is a contract you get before you are told secret.
Hush money is giving to you after you learn a secret.
NDA is for legitimate business to set expectations.
Hush money is usually used to prevent the truth about mistakes from being shared.
So hush money is frowned upon as a desperate act of an irresponsible person.
Most importantly, NDAs typically explicitly allow for disclosure of information if it is information about illegal stuff. So they are meant to protect corporate secrets or perhaps personal ones, but in most rule-of-law jurisdictions contracts cannot trump (heh) laws. Laws stand above anything you agree on.
Think of hush money as preemptively defensive reverse blackmail. Somebody has a secret that you want to keep a secret. Instead of them asking for money to stay quiet you offer money to keep them quiet.
This is opposed to an NDA which is information that many people know but could cost you business if given to a competitor.
Hush money is a (potentially incriminating) bribe, a non disclosure agreement is a legally binding document.
Hush money is always AFTER the fact and to hide some kind of criminal/dubious activity.
NDA are signed BEFORE the fact and are meant to prevent disclosure of trade secrets. If there is some criminal activity you are still free to call the authorities even under NDA.
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