The other day I saw this in a confidentiality agreement:
You could express the same concept using efforts:
The Recipient shall use reasonable efforts to prevent disclosure or use of Confidential Information other than as authorized in this agreement.
Or you could express it using neither degree of care nor efforts:
The Recipient shall take precautions to prevent disclosure or use of Confidential Information other than as authorized in this agreement. Those precautions must be at least as effective as those taken by a reasonable person in the position of the Recipient.
I suggest that addressing this issue using the phrase degree of care isn’t ideal. The notion of a degree of care, or a standard of care, is generally associated with how someone is expected to go about providing services. Because the contract specifies what the services consist of, standards of care are primarily concerned with competence. (See my 2019 blog post for a detailed discussion of how to express a standard of care.)
By contrast, an obligation to keep information confidential leaves open what the recipient has to do. That involves more than competence, so it’s more in the realm of efforts.
What about the third alternative, using neither degree of care nor efforts? The third example is a long-winded way to say efforts. It doesn’t offer any offsetting advantages, so I recommend not going with this option.
