31 People Whose NDAs Have Already Lapsed Share Some Juicy Details About The Companies They Worked For

They won't get into trouble, so the people ought to know.

May

• Published in Interesting
• August 23, 2022

If you thought that the biggest secret you need to keep is the fact that you ate your sister's dessert she's been saving for another day, think again. When you're finally adulting, chances are you'll come across a job that requires you to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

Such binding contracts help keep the company's trade secrets within the organization. It prevents employees from leaking information and original ideas to other businesses, such as competitors.

The catch is, that these contracts have an expiration. It can be as short as one year from the time you leave the company up to half a decade.

If you are caught breaking an NDA, you could get into really big trouble. You might find yourself paying for damages, court costs, and attorney's fees — and these don't come cheap.

In addition, breaking an NDA can damage your reputation and jeopardize your future career prospects. Think twice before breaking an NDA.

It's simply not worth the risk. But once the contract has lapsed, then we're pretty sure you won't get screwed by telling the truth.

After all, people want to know the juicy details. Ex-employees are compelled to share those secrets because they're either interesting or downright unfair or dirty.

So if you want to know all those details, scroll down for some of the most interesting business secrets.

1. Pretzel secret ingredient

I worked for a mall pretzel stand about 25 years ago and had to sign an NDA about the secret pretzel ingredient. It was baking soda.

2. We already know, but more and more people are confirming this.

The outcomes of quite a few reality shows I directed, were rigged.

3. Deals between Pepsi and Coca Cola

Not my own but from a family friend.

Coca Cola and Pepsi regularily settle disputes behind closed doors on things like employees trying to quit and join the competitor. Their employment contracts have entire clauses stating you cannot be employed by the competing companies even after you quit so to protect company intel and confidentiality.

For example, a Coca Cola employee feels like he is being mistreated by the company so he quits and tries to work for Pepsi. So Pepsis legal team will inform Coca Cola as soon as they find out and Coca Cola will sue the guy for breach of contract and in return Pepsi will pay them. This is done so Pepsi and Coca Cola dont sue each others into bankrupcy for breach of laws regarding industrial competition and market regulations.

Basically a peace treaty of sorts.

4. This magician's secrets can be found on the internet

I was a science themed kids birthday party magician. I had to sign an NDA and non-compete in order to be taught the experiments that I performed during the show. They’re cool demos, I could even wow adults with some of them, but they’re not that special, I guarantee you that I could find the experiments themselves on the internet or in a homeschool textbook (the flair and the showy part was all me). But all of us “magicians” were college students, so the NDA and noncompete were there to intimidate us a bit. The non-compete was important, the owner didn’t want us stealing the experiments and create a competing company, but the NDA was just saber-rattling to keep us compliant with the NC. It was worth it, he paid us well and the tips were usually pretty good.

But the NDA and the NC expired a decade ago, so if you want, I can spill the secrets!

5. Always be nice to people. You don't know what they've gone through.

I work for a moving company and we work with a women’s shelter often enough. Typically women escaping abuse will have the shelter hire us to go in and get their belongings (sometimes with police company) and all the movers sign NDA’s to protect the women from letting their new addresses slip. I can’t disclose anything that interesting but I want to take the opportunity to say, those people who jump at the slightest sound, the littlest surprise, be nice to them because you don’t know whether they are just jumpy naturally or if there’s a reason they are like that now.

6. Some of our calls are being recorded and stored.

Your phone company doesn't always comply with FCC regulations involving the recording of phone calls. A lot more may be recorded and insecurely stored than you realize.

7. Made in the USA is a lie.

Used to work in a warehouse where we made feminine hygiene products. The pads came out of one machine into several different branded boxes. Both the nickel gas station pads and the 10 dollar a box pads.

Also we had one product of pads where we imported them from china, then repackaged them into our own boxes. I didn't have a problem with that. The problem I had was the box had an emblem saying "made in America"

Would've been ok if it said assembled in America. But no.

8. Beagles galore

When I was tech before I was a vet, I worked in a lab that mostly tested animal meds on animals. Flea products, heartworm meds, etc.

We had one product in testing for human medication though, which was an injection that supposedly was going to shorten the need to wear retainers after having braces.

Of course, to test that, we needed animals that had worn braces long enough to replicate the changes that happen to human mouths that have had braces.

What I'm getting at, was that some days it was my job to brush the mouths of like 50 beagles that all had braces and make sure the wires and brackets were in place and not causing any trauma to the lips or gingiva.

The image of dozens of goofy little dogs clack clack clacking around me in circles around the lab super excited to see me, doing their ridiculous beagle howls and flashing their braces as they did so will never leave my brain.

9. Female character with a male voice actor

I was part of the beta testing for DC universe online. I remember a few missions that were voiced probably just by developers, before they hired the voice actors to do it. I wish I had saved footage of it but there was one where Supergirl was clearly voiced by a man doing a high-pitched falsetto voice. One of the funniest things I've ever seen.

10. The truth about car interiors

Your leather car interior is likely to shrink in the sun.

11. Hired fans

Not sure if I’m no longer bound or not or how common knowledge it is, but living in NYC I was paid to be a fan at a major red carpet movie premiere for a popular film franchise. 100% of the people there were paid to act excited as famous actors and a VERY famous director walked out and said hello and did interviews. We were under strict instructions not to let anyone know we were hired.

12. We hope that this woman gets the justice she deserves.

A recently hired employee trapped a secretary in a bathroom at the company Christmas party and r@ped her. He was caught in the act, sentenced, and will serve a long jail term. All the employees who knew about the details were forced to sign strong NDA and ordered **not to talk** to any other employees. No one was told why the guy didn't show up for work ever again. The victim was offered a generous payout and never came back to work. HR put out a story that she was taking time off for personal reasons and her coworkers were never told why. Everything was hushed up as much as it could be. The company changed from open bar to drink tickets for all future company events.

13. Film VFX secrets

Work in film VFX so there’s a lot.

Ummmmm let’s see, I mean the obvious is always that studio interface = s**t movie. I’ve never worked on a film and heard “the studio wants to reshoot this sequence” and ever had it turned out to be a good thing.

But my guess is 99% of you know that.

So a specific? There are so many good movies you’ll never get to see because of studios. I mean you’ll see them but not until they’re recut, reshot, and completely devoid of any artistic vision that created them.

People point to “the Snyder cut” or now Suicide Squad and I can honestly tell you if a film is over 50 million and not directed by Scorsese, Nolan or Tarantino it’s created by a mindless collection of studio executives who don’t know s**t about filmmaking.

Ad Astra was incredible and would’ve been such a tribute to 2001 but the studio saw it and got scared of James making a slow paced science fiction film that made you think.

They pulled it from him, made a mess when it was given to a second editor (because he wanted to add 15 million in new VFX shots) then given back to James to fix but with this new direction.

Woman in the window was interesting and while not a great thriller, something that was decent and thought provoking. Think Shutter Island. But three test audiences in New Jersey, a second distribution company (Fox to Disney) and a second director for massive reshoots created the shitshow that was unloaded on Netflix.

There are several big time films that’ll never see the light of day because the studio bought them and is sitting on their release. Things you’ve never heard of with great directors and casts because the studio doesn’t want to be associated with it for whatever reason. Weinstein was notorious for this but several other producers have done the same.

What’s going on with Scarlet Johansson right now is waaaay too common for everyone in the industry. Only difference is she’s above being blackballed and has the money to pay for the lawyers needed to defend her.

Finally just know if you go to a film and say “how did they not fix that shot” realize the director wanted to, we just didn’t get approval, or “who comes up with this s**t” it probably wasn’t s**t until the studio got involved.

14. Spies make great friends for the ultra-famous

Worked for an ultra-famous, multiple-Oscar winning actor. He was developing an espionage movie as a pet project. I was hired as a researcher. Mostly I found him people in the spy business to talk to. I would read everything available on the person (usually there wasn't much, but I could at least learn everything publicly known about the institution they worked for). I would brief him and together we would conduct the interview with the screenwriter.

He wanted the project to proceed in complete secrecy, which under normal conditions would be impossible. People like meeting movie stars and they can't help talking about it. If we were researching any other arena, word would get out. The cool thing about talking to spies is that they keep secrets for a living. We interviewed a former head of the Mossad, a former head of Shin Bet, the guy who ran the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan for the CIA, the guy who ran the Contras in Nicaragua for the CIA, and even a former Mossad agent the Mossad was trying to kill. Not one peep ever became public.

Over the years some of those contacts became friends of the movie star. This is unusual. It's hard for movie stars to have friends. Apparently professional spies are good at it. When you are ultra-famous, the people you value most are the ones who keep their mouths shut.

15. Netflix AI.

Netflix has created a group of AI that will essentially be like the Skynet of streaming media.

It can predict with crazy accuracy what you’ll click on based on not only your previous views and clicks, but the time of year it is in your location, the WEATHER going on outside your window and the kinds of movies you like to watch when it’s raining or snowing. it figures out your likely holidays celebrated, your favorite colors, typefaces, and genres. This leads into the marketing AI.

They have created an AI driven software that creates movie posters and promotional art for a film or show appear to be whatever genre they want. For instance, it’ll create artwork for an action movie that makes the movie look like a rom com if you’re into rom come and not actions. It’s literally an automated super smart photoshop like computer just for film/tv artwork.

16. Poop cake game

You know those Jackbox party games? They have a database full of about a hundred jackbox games that were pitched but not used, since rejected games often get featured in later party packs.

Notably, one of those jackbox games is called Poop Cake. Won’t detail how it works in case it does get released, but there is a rejected jackbox game called Poop Cake that exists and is officially documented for potential future use.

17. This person found a hit list by accident

My NDA is still in effect, but I've covered my liability. A few years, with a previous insurance company I worked for, we fired an employee who had a nasty personality (imagine a toxic gamer working in a call center and that would be this guy).

He had been the son (or grandson) of one of the board members so he was untouchable. When his relative on the board got voted out, it was finally time for this little troll to be fired.

His supervisor took him to a conference room to let him know he was fired and he was escorted from the building by security. As the HR manager, I was tasked with clearing his desk and separating his property from company property.

That was when I found a heavily used 5" X 8" notepad on his desk that had a list of names. Next to each name was a mailing addresses and details about how this ex-employee planned to harm these people. I did some digging and found they were all current or former clients of the company and that they all had filed complaints against this monster.

It was a hit list.

I notified the board **AFTER** I notified the police. The s**t was arrested on unrelated drug and assault charges. The prosecutor now had to consider charging this guy for his hit list. Since she couldn't convince a judge there was a strong enough case, the prosecutor decided to empanel a grand jury.

Since I was the individual who found the notepad, I was subpoenaed to confirm its provenance. Considering any other employee could have walked by and deposited this list on this a*****e's desk, the grand jury decided to not move ahead to a trial. For the drug and assault charges, the former employee was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

As a witness, I wasn't issued a gag order regarding the grand jury investigation. However, my work did order me to sign an NDA to "protect the clients who were on that hit list" (it was really just to cover up that they were in any danger). I signed and then quit as soon as I got a job offer with another company. Those bastards on the board cared more about their profit margin and public image than they did about people's lives.

If they figure out I'm violating that NDA, there's not much they can do. They know antagonizing me with a lawsuit would only lead to me telling the media, naming the company and ruining their public image.

18. Really old powerline transformers

There are powerline transformers that predate ww1 still up and running in the US and the utility companies aren't a 100% sure where most of them are. They only find out when one finally dies.

Someone over 100 years ago put up a transform that powered telegrams all the way to Twitter.

19. The dark sides of YouTube

1) YouTube is the most unethical platform on earth.

If you are a high value account, most of the policies of YouTube won't touch you. For example, there was a Brazilian kid twerking, with his small sister that was dressed very provocatively. Normally YouTube would take down this video for "minor sexualisation" but because the account had some millions of followers, not only it remained live on the platform, but also had a safety net, in case a "stupid" agent tried to take it down.

2) everyday there are thousands upon thousands of very horrible videos being uploaded on YouTube, and it's up to a human being to go through them and take an action.

As you can understand, a lot of agents develop depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental problems due to the nature of the videos they are watching

20. The world is so unfair

I worked security for a gated neighborhood of extremely wealthy people. Like, fortune 500 CEO, Senator(s) (sometimes both), etc.

We got to know which cars were "authorized" without being authorized. Because we weren't allowed to stop them, question them, or log them in in any way.

Because they were coke dealers selling to the elite.

21. More reality TV lies

I signed an NDA for a prominent American show where they take a certain type of business on the brink of failure and "transform it" to save the business. When the producers of the show found out my wife and I both worked there, they tried to fish through our relationship for tv drama. When they found out we have a solid relationship, they tried to convince us to fake our drama with scripted conflict.

Long story short, we got fed up and quit during shooting. We were cut from the show. Oh well

22. Company instructs its customer service agents to lie

I used to work in a call center that had Bayer Advanced (yes, THAT Bayer) as a client. Bayer knew/knows full well that their neonicotinoid based pesticide/gardening products killed bees and were responsible for colony collapse. We were instructed to bold face deny and/or lie to the customer or caller if we were ever asked about it. We were also instructed to lie about the spray nozzles on the bottles. Bayer knew they sucked a*s and were almost always completely DOA defective, but they refused to admit it and decided it was cheaper to just keep mailing replacement nozzles.

23. Time to open an indie game studio

I signed a NDA with EA games in order to pitch them a game idea that myself and 2 friends had developed. They turned us down due to there being a similar title already being in production. That was 10 years ago and there's still never been a game in even remotely the same vein as the one we pitched. Frustrating to say the least.

24. This is inhumane

Amazon is probably here but I'm saying it anyway.

The reason why people p**s in bottles is that they are fighting against TOT(time off task). If in a week you accumulate a combined total of 15 minutes of non working, not break away from your station you a reprimanded or more likely fired. So walking away to pee, TOT. Slightly late to station due to high foot traffic, ToT. Stop at you station for a breather because it's hot, your tired or sick, TOT.

The above plus the strict metrics and constant oversight of the lead staff makes working there feel like you are a machine.

It reminds me of film representations from the twenties about the the sadness of the futures poor.

25. He got into trouble after doing the right thing.

As Security Chief, I found that my boss, the Region Security manager, was stealing.

At that time, I thought to keep things "in the family'; imagine the scandal that, in the security branch of a nationwide mobile phone company, one of the people in charge of security was caught doing what he was supposed to prevent. Naive me.

So I reported directly to the CSO who, after getting a confession, ask the culprit to resign.

After that, he placed his 24yo niece (or something, family related) in the Region management, then, after 2 months fired me.

A year later, I found out that the first boss was indeed the CSO cousin who ordered his niece to fire me in retaliation.

Wiser me knows now to bring those things directly to HR.

26. Lucky guy!

I have been apart of a focus group program for over 10 years now. It's mostly opinion chat sessions but there were occasional times where I would test or try out some new product that I'd have to sign an NDA for.

You remember when HP started that line of mini laptops?

Yup. Beta tested those.

Some other things now on the market I've tested before release were: Gillettes Fusion, Facebook Dating, Xbox Project X Cloud!

And yes they pay wonderfully.

27. The truth about Smile Direct Club

Smile Direct Club has an NDA that basically protects their company from any criticism of bad results. If you were to check their page on the Better Business Bureau, you will see that most of their complaints are not available, which is due to the NDA.

For anyone to get released from their contract for anything ranging from loose teeth, cracked teeth, or misaligned bites, you have to sign the NDA. Signing it waives your rights to criticize the bad results, gives you a fraction of your total money spent (at least for me) or seek any sort of reparations for any future dental costs. The kicker is that more often than not, you aren't given the option to get a release. They ask you to give pics for reevaluation, and if they see nothing wrong, they usually deny any wrongdoing and say the results were deemed "satisfactory." If you keep calling/emailing, you get the runaround from management and the only way to get a release form is by writing a complaint to the BBB. And usually, the day after they send you the NDA to get the complaint down and release you from the contract.

I'm sure legally, this is all above board. But thinking of it clinically, it's super fucked up to me. You're expected to trust your teeth to non-licensed dentist professionals who are priding themselves on the word of mouth of others while silencing criticism? And rather than try to address the problem, they gaslight you and convince you that it's part of the risk. That you only get out by complaining to the BBB and to protect their bottom line, you're expected to just shut up about it, have a fraction of your money refunded and now expected to deal with the fallout yourself.

Thousands of dollars wasted dealing with a cracked tooth, a misaligned bite, and having to get two of my crowns replaced. I wouldn't wish having an off-bite to anyone in the world but now I have to live with it and the bills due to a pandemic and being stupid enough to sign the NDA just to be done with them. Just hope someone sees this and thinks twice about Smile Direct Club.

28. An au pair's story

Used to be an au pair for a famous couples children. NDA was there to protect the family - I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the kids on any of my devices, the photos i did take were not allowed to include their faces and the rest were just general rules about not sharing their private information. Even to this day i won't sell that information even though the NDA has expired, probably some of the nicest people i have ever worked for.

29. About John Travolta

From a secondary source, but trustworthy

John travolta is gay. His partner was sick in the hospital, he came to visit him many times, whole floor was emptied and everyone in the floor had to sign an nda

But yeah, those rumors are true. Weird how they started way back then

30. He can't tell his friends what really happened.

I walked in on my boss having sex with another employee on the table in his office. He was married and it was a family owned business so his boss was also his mom. After he offered to promote me and give me a few raises to be quiet, his mom ended up offering me money to leave and not say anything. I took it and left. All my friends think I just found a better job.

31. Tesla car failures

Tesla has failed six attempts to get their cars licensed for racing by the FIA. I can't say anything past that, but if you feel like checking the registry you'll find they're still not licensed.

I didn't enjoy the battery melting under me when we pushed the car to the limits. Not did I enjoy the threat of a lawsuit if I didn't change my report. f**k Tesla

It's a real shame though because I love electric cars. They're 100% the future of motorsports and I really wish there were more batteries capable of emptying at the rate needed without breaking.

According to an expert, breaking the NDA doesn't mean you're criminally liable.

Criminal penalties won't be involved when you get sued. However, the company has the power to seek to get the damages paid because of the contract breach.

In the end, it's always important to read contracts. You might find something that you won't agree to and you'd rather not get bound by that.

May