How to avoid accidentally sharing proprietary information when working for a competitor of a former employer?

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2024-04-17 23:00:02

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I worked for Company A on Product X, with intimate knowledge of its implementation as well as in-development features. My contract with A included a confidentiality agreement (with a survivorship clause that explicitly specifies that it survives termination of employment and has no expiration). Company A had layoffs and let me go.

Company B has a product Y that competes with X. B offered me a job working on Y. If I accept the offer, sharing the proprietary information I possess about X with B would be both a contract violation and an ethical violation.

How do I avoid accidentally sharing that information? Everything I do is informed by my accumulated knowledge, so inevitably some part of my decisions made as an employee of B would be at least influenced by my knowledge of X. Is it possible to avoid the appearance of sharing that information (even if actual sharing doesn't happen)?