IIT Kanpur gives utmost importance on maintaining the confidentiality of a problem being addressed for its partner industry. It signs non-disclosure agreements and MOUs at different levels to ensure that maintenance of secrecy remains legally binding for all parties associated with the project. It follows the following broad professional norms to ensure that confidentiality of data and information is ensured:

• Faculty members/scientific staffs/students working on a problem for one industry do not engage in similar problem with its competitor.

• The data/information received from industry partner or that generated out of the research work sponsored by the industry partner is shared with anybody only on "need to know" basis.

• Journal publication and conference presentation of results born out of the research work is undertaken strictly on the basis of mutually agreed guidelines spelt out in the MOUs.

• Any detail of the collaborative project being carried out for any industry, any data/information received from the industry partner and that generated through the course of the research is not made part of any annual report of any unit or department of the institute or that of the institute itself.

• IIT Kanpur does not divulge any detail of the collaborative project with industry to any external agency, e.g. press. In specific cases, if at all, it is done with the permission of Dean of Research and Development or the Director of the institute.