An NDA from Send NDA has two clocks. The term is how long the agreement itself runs. The confidentiality period is how long the Receiving Party keeps the information quiet after the term ends. You set both on the form, each from 1 to 5 years, and both default to 3.
When it starts
Not when you send it. The agreement takes effect on the day the last party signs:
This Non-Disclosure Agreement (the "Agreement") takes effect on the date on which the last Party signs it, as shown in the signing record (the "Effective Date").
The definition of confidential information reaches back, though: it covers what was shared "whether before or after the Effective Date". Information you showed in the meeting the day before the second signature is covered.
Two clocks
Say you pick a term of 2 years and a confidentiality period of 3. The contract reads:
This Agreement continues for 2 years from the Effective Date (the "Term"). The Receiving Party's obligations in respect of Confidential Information continue for 3 years after the end of the Term …
So the Receiving Party keeps quiet for 5 years from the last signature: 2 while the agreement runs, and 3 after. Information shared late in the term is still protected for the full 3 years after it ends.
Pick the term for how long the conversation lasts, and the confidentiality period for how long the information stays worth protecting. A pitch deck goes stale faster than a customer list.
Trade secrets
One kind of information outlasts both clocks. For anything that's a trade secret under the applicable law, the obligations continue "for as long as it remains a trade secret". A recipe, a source of supply or an algorithm you keep secret for a living doesn't fall free after 5 years because a date passed.
The no-product limb of the non-solicitation and non-use clause is the one exception: the contract says it isn't extended by the trade secret rule.
What survives the end
When the term ends, the articles needed to keep those obligations alive survive it. The contract lists them by name: return and destruction, remedies, governing law and jurisdiction, and electronic signature and evidence, plus non-use and non-circumvention where you included them and the governing law lets them run past the term. Rights that had already arisen before the end aren't affected either.
The optional clauses keep their own durations. The no-poaching limb runs for the term and 12 months after it. Non-circumvent runs 12 months from each introduction or until the end of the term, whichever is later.
Where the governing law ends a restraint with the term, as India's does, both stop at the end of the term and non-circumvention doesn't survive it. Governing law has the details.
After it ends
At the end, or earlier if the Disclosing Party asks in writing, the Receiving Party returns or destroys the information, copies and notes included. They may keep one archive copy where law or a genuine retention policy requires it, and needn't purge backups until those are overwritten in the normal course. Whatever they keep stays covered by the agreement.
Send NDA keeps a completed agreement and its signing record until five years after the end of the confidentiality period: the term, the confidentiality period and five years, counted from the last signature. That's 7 years at the shortest and 15 at the longest. The privacy policy has the details. Send NDA provides a template, not legal advice.