A person living in a big city like Madrid, who decides to go to a private detective, either due to a professional cause or for a personal reason, certainly has thought about it a lot, and this is because they have to explain the details of the case so that private detectives can finally address the matter and solve it.
The cases are varied and they can range from intimate and complex situations like infidelity or the legal dispute over the custody of children, to cases of corporate fraud or theft of secret information within a company. That is why presenting the situation openly to investigators can generate an internal conflict because of fear that the secrets exposed to a private investigator can generate more problems than there were at first. However, self-regulation which protects and guarantees the work of private detectives in Spain, as well as each detective agency’s own reputation, are two fundamental reasons to ensure the reliability of the work of a private investigator, and all of it revolves around one word: Confidentiality.
Concept of confidentiality
The profession of private detective is not the only one in which the character of secret information is an sin equa non element for the work to be carried out properly and both the professional and the client should end up satisfied with commercial and professional relationship. Although confidentiality is defined as standard and in some cases legal, this concept can be applied uniformly in all professions in which information must be kept private.
The basic notion of confidentiality is understood as the set of rules or commitment that limits access to certain information dissemination. As we can see, this concept has several interesting breakdown edges. First, we have the notion of information.
What do we mean by information? It is anything that can be transmitted or communicated to a third person. It can be information from a medical file, an image, a photograph, a computer file or a simple conversation. It means that we are not limited to think of information as a written document or something that can be transmitted in writing, but it may be any element capable of being communicated.
From there we can advance to interpret another notion included in the concept of confidentiality: commitment. Commitment is a complex word that implies that at least two people promise the same thing at the same time.
We talk of a joint effort, teamwork, in this case, to keep certain information safe from being disseminated. This element of the notion of confidentiality applies to the work of a private detective, and the detective who not only takes the responsibility not to communicate any information the customer provided him or the detective managed to get through his own work, but the customer also makes a commitment not to interfere in the work of the detective and not to disclose the fact of having contracted a detective, to thereby ensure that the investigator’s work is kept secret.
Scope of range of confidentiality
Just take a few seconds to think of other professions where confidentiality is important to the same extent as for a private detective. For starters, doctors. There is no profession where confidentiality is legally prescribed and important like with doctors: the medical record of a patient is something that should enjoy the highest secrecy.
The way that the field of medicine applies the concept of confidentiality is very useful for us to understand how a private detective must maintain the maximum privacy with all the information that corresponds to the case being investigated. This goes beyond the practicality and effectiveness at work and it has to do with morality and ethics. The importance of confidentiality lies in the fact that it allows to build an environment of trust in the patient, in the case between a doctor and a client.
In the case of private detectives, we will not hesitate about telling all the details, as establishing the basis of mutual respect and tranquility from the beginning will have positive impact on solving the problems that made the person require these professionals in particular.
It is said that this is an issue that encompasses moral and ethics because of principles and knowledge, a secret is not revealed, even in the private sphere. That is the case between two friends with no professional contract. If one entrusts secret or certain sensitive and personal information to another, based on the moral principle, the second friend should not communicate these revelations to anyone else. If a social actor has confidence in depositing other sensitive information to your receipt, it remains so in secret.
If in addition to the ethical and personal matter, there is a professional contract between social actors, as between a patient and a doctor, or a client and a lawyer or a private detective, it is a stake of professional ethics rather than personal matter. As we can see, confidentiality has deep, moral and even philosophical implications that transcend the field of private research, but they are closely related to it.
Legality and secret
As defined above, confidentiality is a commitment on both sides. Truth and initial trust generate confidence and more credibility, resulting in a transparent relationship that leads to more accurate and faster results. You should have in mind that a private detective in Madrid is not a part of the police, but a private detective always operates under a legal framework that is the most important tool allowing detectives to guarantee absolute reliability, credibility and safeguard of the personal and professional secrets of his clients.
The other element that gives confidence to customers: the action attached to the existing legislation
Obviously, delicate profession such as a private detective work should be seen in the most absolute respect in terms of law, in order to offer their customers an absolute guarantee of reliability, discretion and confidentiality. That is, a private detective in Madrid should avoid actions of dubious legality to complete the case. Detectives must respect the privacy of others and obtain information in a manner which is a hundred percent legitimate at all times.
Not only will this give customers confidence about their accuracy and veracity, but it will also be a guarantee that detective will not disclose any sensitive information. It will also ensure that the private detective has maintained its performance at all times within a framework of strict legality and adherence the existing rules of their profession and any applicable law.
Examples, daily work and specific guarantees
Take practical examples. What kind of information do private detectives obtain and commit to keep it secret and confident?
- Any information related to the partners. When a person is about to hire a private detective because of suspicion that a partner may be unfaithful, that person trusts details from the personal life to private detectives. All the data that may include intimate things or everyday habits are firmly sealed under a confidentiality agreement when the client hires the services of a private detective.
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- Details of a professional company. On the other hand, when it is a corporate executive who comes to a private detective, the nature of the information is not as intimate, but it is equally delicate. This can include secrets such as chemical formulas, bank account numbers, employee databases, and so on. It is certainly very sensitive information, which also has to be treated with the utmost confidentiality.
- Disputes over custody of the children. Another case where confidentiality is a cornerstone of the work of a private detective is when a couple’s legal custody is disputed. It is a delicate time when both partners seek to find something that allows them to stay close to their children, and for this, presenting details of their relationship will be necessary, and even small daily items in the lives of their children should definitely stay ultimate secret throughout the investigation, even when the investigation is over.
As we can see, in each case the private investigator should provide specific guarantees to ensure that all customer data will be given in the best possible hands. In their daily work it is likely that the private detective is going to encounter either curious people or people interested in the case being investigated. In that situation, a detective must act with extreme prudence and discretion to avoid the interest of others to interfere in his work and avoid risks of information leakage.
These examples all strengthen the idea that a private investigator has a duty to maintain confidential the information provided by the client as well as the information the investigator has gathered in the investigation. In fact, that is a great source of so-called “frustration” because due to this vote of privacy, a private detective cannot boast of their professional successes like other professionals, because despite having managed to solve very complex cases, the only one who will learn about the good work done is the client.