16.3 Confidentiality, Integrity & Public Communication

16.3 Confidentiality, Integrity & Public Communication

Quick Summary: Provision 4 protects confidential and secure information; Provision 5 requires truthful public statements and advertising; Provision 9 protects the profession's integrity; and Provision 10 requires compliance with NCRA's Constitution and Bylaws. These duties apply across files, conversations, social media, credentials, vendors, backup audio, and AI-assisted workflows.

Provision 4: Confidentiality and Security

Provision 4 directs a member to preserve the confidentiality and ensure the security of information, oral or written, entrusted by any party in a proceeding. The reporter should inventory every place that information exists: steno notes, transcript drafts, exhibits, email attachments, cloud folders, synchronized audio, realtime streams, dictionaries containing case terms, and files held by scopists or proofreaders.

Use reasonable safeguards fitted to the risk and the governing requirements. Examples include unique accounts, strong authentication, prompt security updates, encrypted services where appropriate, restricted sharing, verified recipient addresses, secure disposal, and written vendor expectations. The Code does not mandate one named algorithm or transfer product for every job. A protective order, agency contract, privacy law, or court IT policy may impose more specific controls.

Confidentiality also has procedural boundaries. Whether a transcript is public, sealed, available to a party, or releasable to a third party depends on its filing status and the controlling law, rule, order, and NCRA guidance. Do not describe the Code as creating a universal perpetual secrecy rule, and do not assume that passage of time makes an unfiled deposition public.

Sealed and Restricted Material

When a judge or valid order seals part of a proceeding, follow the exact order and local filing process. The order may require a separate volume, a specified legend, restricted electronic filing, or delivery to identified recipients. Pause unauthorized realtime feeds and prevent a public draft from incorporating the restricted material. Do not improvise a nationwide sealed-volume format or distribute solely because someone attended the proceeding.

Grand-jury secrecy and other statutory regimes have their own scope and remedies. A reporter should recognize the heightened restriction and follow Rule 6(e), the court's instructions, and local procedure. Avoid claiming that any mistake automatically produces one specific criminal charge; the legal consequence depends on the authority, conduct, and adjudication.

Confidentiality Decision Checklist

• Authority: Identify the statute, rule, protective order, contract, or NCRA guidance that controls.
• Material: Distinguish certified transcript, draft, notes, exhibits, realtime text, and backup audio.
• Recipient: Verify identity and permission before sending or displaying anything.
• Method: Use access control and a transfer method appropriate to the sensitivity and governing requirement.
• Record: Document unusual authorization, sealing, or release instructions.

Provision 5: Truthful Qualifications and Advertising

Public statements must be truthful and accurate. A reporter should describe present credentials, services, accuracy claims, turnaround capabilities, and technology honestly. Passing an exam years ago does not justify advertising an NCRA designation as active after membership or maintenance requirements have lapsed. Verify credential status before placing initials on a website, email signature, business card, directory listing, or certificate page.

Truthfulness also rejects unsupported claims such as guaranteed perfect accuracy, legal conclusions about a transcript, or a false suggestion that a private business is endorsed by a court. Correct a material public error promptly.

Social Media and Everyday Communication

A case-related post can reveal confidential information even without names. Date, location, subject matter, participant descriptions, photographs, exhibits, or comments about credibility may identify the matter and create an appearance of bias. The safe analysis is not an imagined absolute ban on all professional social media; it is whether the post discloses entrusted information, compromises security, misstates qualifications, or undermines fairness and integrity.

Use the same care in elevators, shared workspaces, text messages, and vendor support tickets. Confirm that the recipient is authorized and disclose only what is needed. A public-record determination should come from the governing source, not from online curiosity.

Backup Audio

NCRA's Guidelines and Advisory Opinion 38 treat discretionary backup audio as a reporter aid, not the official record. The reporter reads back from stenographic notes, not by playing the recording. Absent a court order, the Code does not require the reporter to provide a copy. If the reporter elects to provide one party a copy, comparable availability must be offered to all parties, the original is preserved, and confidential or off-the-record content must be protected. Applicable recording law can be more restrictive.

AI and Third-Party Tools

NCRA's July 17, 2026 COPE guidance states that AI may assist but must not create the official transcript or captions in place of the stenographic reporter. The reporter remains responsible for the record and should not upload or expose proceeding data without authorization. Identify third-party bots or AI notetakers, seek direction from the appropriate authority, and do not give legal advice. Tool convenience never transfers the duties of confidentiality, accuracy, neutrality, or stenographic competence.

The exam-ready pattern is simple: identify the information, the authorized recipient, the controlling rule or order, the truth of any public claim, and the security of the method used.