[PeterisP]

Criminal code is specific to jurisdiction, in California this would probably be the most relevant section - https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/penal-code/pen-sect-499c.html . Whether a customer list is a trade secret depends on a bunch of factors in that state's (or countries) trade secret laws (the penal code is just a fraction of them) but in general a mere list of names and telephone numbers likely will not qualify, but a list that includes their buying habits or pricing of current contracts likely will.

[lazide]

Yeah no.

From your link ‘9) “Trade secret” means information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process, that:

(A) Derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known to the public or to other persons who can obtain economic value from its disclosure or use; and

(B) Is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.’

Pretty hard to imagine a customer list meeting any of those criteria.

[Bjartr]

A customer list can absolutely be reasonably considered to be information with actual and potential value from not being generally known to other persons (competitors) who would obtain economic value from it's disclosure.

So long as you make a reasonable effort to keep it from being public knowledge, it meets the criteria you quoted.

[lazide]

Thanks for reading the ref!

In most court cases I’ve seen about this, it isn’t enough to keep it from being public.

It has to be protected from employees to the degree necessary to keep it a secret. It’s why all the song and dance around the ‘secret ingredients’ in KFC/Pepsi/Coke ‘secret recipes’ (that and marketing). If it was common knowledge at the company, even if it wasn’t public knowledge, they couldn’t use the trade secrets acts to prosecute offenders.

If everyone at the company knows who is on the customer list, including folks who don’t have a privileged need to know it, it isn’t a secret. It just isn’t public knowledge. That still means it isn’t eligible for trade secret protection.

So while yes, it’s possible - if they do that - it’s not at all common with how the information is protected in my experience, and it would be very difficult to actually prosecute anyone under the trade secrets laws because of it.

Civil lawsuit? Different burden of proof, different calculus. Tort law is about being compensated for a loss or injury, after all, and there is no requirement that such loss or injury have been from a criminal act.