Handling Confidential Information

The DSSA working group is chartered under the assumption that certain kinds of proprietary information will need to be gathered and protected during the course of our work. Here is the relevant section of our Charter:

3.2 Access to and Protection of Confidential Information
Sub-working groups of the DSSA-WG may need to access sensitive or
proprietary information in order for the DSSA-WG to do its work. Thus,
measures may need to be established to access and protect confidential or
proprietary information. The following procedures are an exception to the
standards for transparency and accountability and only apply in cases where
members of the aforementioned sub-working groups of the DSSA-WG need to
access and to protect confidential information:
· In certain cases under this exception, in order to ensure access to and
protection of confidential or proprietary information, sub-working groups’
members of the DSSA-WG will be asked to sign a Formal Affirmation of
Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure (See Annex B). In addition, the
sub-working groups’ members of the DSSA-WG may be required to sign a
Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) for a specific project or issue.
· No formal Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is required for membership in
the DSSA-WG; and
· A separate email distribution list that is not publicly accessible may be
established only to include the sub-working groups’ members who have signed
a Non-Disclosure Agreement applicable to that specific project or issue.

The working group found it necessary to refine this a bit and eventually developed a memo outlining our approach to handling confidential information. Here are links to the final version of that memo: