NDA's are fine but they just don't apply to the ideation stage of a project. I've consulted for companies where an NDA was appropriate and necessary but that was so I could look at their contracts and advise them on how to cut costs. Having an NDA is important there because it would actually harm their business if I disclosed the rates they were paying vendors to their competition.
Oh, yes absolutely, text of crucial, active contract — a clear case that needs an NDA. That's what I meant by “anything not fully developed”: details of active operations commonly need those.
The funniest case I had was a company that had scraped the (public) web, asked me to do some statistical studies on the table, and had me sign an NDA saying that I should not reveal to third parties what they had told me, i.e. nothing but the database of public information, and completely transparent mandate (a shoe company wanted to understand what people said about shoes on-line — except it wasn't shoes). What I was supposed to send them (original results) was also covered by the NDA (the agreement was written as to cover both parties either way), preventing them from forwarding my report to anyone; they worked for a third party, not mentioned on that contract. They de facto signed themselves into a huge legal risk if I were feeling cheeky. Even funnier thing: I was one of several possible contractors, but the contact covered “all communications” in “any way”, meaning that even if I wasn't selected, I could send them the report anyway, and they would then possibly not be allowed to send any elements that I had included in my report, even if the other contractor had found that insight too. The guys were paranoid, so the penalties were huge.
