Doing business with a programmer!

I have a project i'm working on and i am trying to hire a programmer to do some custom work for me. This programmer will need access to my database and pretty much the whole source code of my site. So i will probably have to give him my ftp info along with cpanel login.

How can i protect myself from him stealing my content? The website is still being build so there isnt any major database member info he could steal or anything like that but the script is very custom and would easly sell for $500. How can i do business with a programmer and protect myself?

The programmer that i'm going to hire might be in a different country. Do i just trust him and hope he doesnt steal anything? do i mention to him that he's not allowed to use anything from my script for his own personal projects? but then if he's in a different country what laws protect me? pretty much none.

How do you think i should approach this? I'm not a huge company and dont have the time and money to start writting contracts and legal papers.

 

You can only be on safe side just by trusting him. Thats why I think. I am too a programmer, I have login info of 100s of servers and other things. But I think its insult of profession and against ethics to betray clients trust. And I am sure that every professional person think this way.

So hire someone who is truly professional.

 

Yes. I agree. If you do business with a programmer, you have to give some trust.
You can change the passwords when the work is completed, just to protect yourself if the relationship sours.
However, as the work is being done, the programmer will need to have access to your ftp info and your database info.

 

If they are in the same country (Or even if they are not) you could try uising a Non-Disclosure-Agreement. The fact that they have to sign a legal document usually means you are for real and expect that your code will be protected. However, at the end of the day, if a programmer wants to steal your code then there really is nothing you can do about it.

I would go with an established firm with a solid trading history and a good set of existing clients.

Best wishes
Mark

 

If you can't trust him to have access....

Then how the hell can you trust him in your source code......

Seriously thats a bigger issue,

More damage can be done with one missing " ; " then the programmer stealing your content

Best advice is ask around and find a "Trusted" coder , Not some dude that is unknown and 75% less in price

 

NDA is always a good way to somewhat protect your stuff. Other than that, you need to trust your guy and pray

 

From my experience... that's the smallest problem you can have with programmers The tough thing you will face is to get them to program that script.

Anyway, if you hire a programmer then check out his past work. Ask for testimonials, or ask from your trusted friends if they know somebody.

 

I am assuming a lot of your content is pulled from a database with the way you are talking about it. What you can do is take a backup of your database (should be done before he gets access anyway). Then you can extract the vast majority of your content from the backup only leaving a handfull of example queries for him to toy with and write the code around. This would hopefully make you feel more secure, but would be a lot of work.

Overall, do as others said, simply find someone you feel you can trust or has a reputable background.

 

Your best bet is to hire a local programmer, because local programmers for example in my country are not that mixed in the internet selling business.
For example if you hire someone local who all he ever did was get paid by local people, then you have a bigger chance that he won't be browsing online and trying to sell your code.