Identity theft thieves don't like paper shredding services. Why? Because it's one of the most effective ways to protect individuals and businesses from its extremely negative effects.
Consider the following interesting facts you may not have known about your document shredding services.
- Most identity theft and fraud can be tied to paper information such as lost or stolen wallet or checkbook, stolen paper mail, fraudulent changes of address, or information taken from the garbage.
- Trash is considered public property. Identity theft thieves like that. According to the 1988 case, California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Fourth Amendment found that trash is public property if it’s on the curb.
- Document shredding is not only important for security and cybersecurity reasons, it's also the law. Currently there are several state and federal laws which mandate that you safeguard all private information regarding your employees and customers. To remain compliant with these particular laws, you must destroy all confidential and outdated business information. It is crucial to protect your business by securely shredding any document that no longer requires storage.
- The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Established in 1995, this law requires that healthcare industry professionals responsibly shred discarded patient information.
- The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) of 2003 was enforced to help reduce the risk of identity theft by requiring responsible shredding of discarded customer information.
- The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) Enacted in 1999, this law requires banking and financial institutions to protect the privacy of consumer data.
- The most advanced document shredding machines produce paper pieces that cannot be reconstructed.
- Shredding isn't just for paper. Some document shredding services will also shred and dispose of your hard drives. Other shredders can shred through rubber bands, staples, binder clips, and hanging file folders.
- You will want a Certificate of Destruction from your shredding company, because that will ensure that your sensitive documents were completely destroyed, according to the highest standards in the industry.
- Outsourcing your shredding is cost effective: When you consider employee wages and benefits, then factor in depreciation and maintenance costs on the equipment, it can cost more than $100 per month month to operate an office shredder. Plus, professional paper shredding eliminates time consuming in-house document disposal tasks that eat away at productivity and revenue generation.
What Else Should Someone Know About Shredding?
Now that you know what you can shred, you might be wondering how to prep your materials for shredding. Fortunately, since industrial shredders can shred all types of materials, you don’t need to sort or organize your documents at all before destruction. You don’t have to remove staples, paper clips, binder clips, or folders. Just toss your documents as they are into a secure shred bin until they are ready for shredding.
What exactly is a shred bin? A shred bin is a lockable bin where you can store your documents until you are ready to shred them. If you sign up for regular shredding services you can store these secure bins throughout your office to gather papers in until the next scheduled shredding date.
What About Using Small Personal Shredders?
When you shred paper in a small personal shredder, you’ll end up with a couple of pounds of shredded paper that most recycling services won’t accept.
Fortunately, when you go through a shredding company, they produce enough shredded paper that they can bale it and send it off to recyclers to have the paper bits reused.
When you use a shredding service provider, they will recycle all of the shredded paper. This is not only good for the environment but adds another layer of security for your shredded materials.