It _really_ depends on who the person is and what their duty to the company is. Your statement is correct for those unaffiliated, but I’ve seen a fair share of prosecutions for insider trading for those with a duty to the company.

Matt Levine writes about this all the time. The current law is kind of murky.

If I remember correctly, 2 things need to be proven: 1) someone shared non-public information they shouldn’t have, 2) there was some consideration (money, etc) given for such information.

So there are cases where #2 becomes the issue because no money changed hands. Then the argument can get weird where the argument is “he offered the insider information in exchange for friendship”.