Business owners and consumers alike are faced with dilemmas about disposing confidential documents on a daily basis: What is shredding and why is it important? What needs shredding? Is it necessary to go through the extra time and expense for shredding confidential information? What constitutes a sensitive document and what are the repercussions if you choose to throw the material away or simply recycle it?
These are important questions to evaluate and their answers will ultimately inform your decision on the bigger dilemma: to shred or not to shred?
Learn When to Shred
With limited time and resources, it’s easy to continue with the business as usual. If you’ve never felt the need for professional shredding services in the past, why start now? The simple answer is times have changed. Businesses and consumers alike are faced with more risk by leaving paper documents intact. The Federal Trade Commission protects consumer information and business are not only encouraged but required to maintain the utmost security. Identity theft is on the rise and criminals are savvy. The extra effort and modest expense for shredding confidential information far outweighs the liability that exists.
Learn What to Shred
At this point, you may be wondering what a sensitive document is…and if you’ve got any. Every business has information on customers and employees and handles information they want to keep private—that means they’re in possession of sensitive material. In fact, nearly every document that flows from an office can be considered a record and is therefore protected. At the individual level, we have mountains of receipts, tax information, and bank and credit statements containing our personal information. A criminal needs very little information to get the process started and paper records still represent the most common information breach.
So what does it all mean and where do we go from here? In order to lower risk and comply with current legislation, document shredding of sensitive material is imperative. The responsibility lies with each of us to do the right thing. Together we can ensure that material doesn’t fall into the wrong hands with professional shredding services.
