It is not only the homeless that do "dumpster diving". The courts have ruled in many cases that trade secrets are not protected if they are thrown away in the trash. In order to prevent corporate espionage or identity theft, it is important that any records with private information be destroyed and be destroyed properly. ShredEx shreds documents by using a cross shredder which creates a "confetti-like" material, not the strips of paper that come out of a typical office shredder.
Customers Your customers provide you with confidential information. They expect you to keep this information confidential and not let it get "into the wrong hands". With identity theft on the rise, they have the right to expect that when you no longer need this information, it will be destroyed using the right paper shredding and document destruction methods so that no one can use it.
Laws Because of sensitive information, new laws have been passed to require destruction of this information before disposal. Laws such as HIPAA (healthcare) and Gramm-Leach-Bliley (financial) require specific physical safeguards such as shredding to meet compliance. Click here to read more about these laws related to paper shredding and document destruction.
Employees You have a legal responsibility to protect your employees' personal information. Weather it is employment applications, health records, attendance records, time cards or accident reports, you are legally required to use adequate means for paper shredding and document destruction of these records before disposing of them.
Rights to Trade Information Courts will not recognize the trade information protection if a company doesn't protect the information themselves. The US Supreme Court has ruled that you forfeit the right of ownership to discarded information. This means, if you don't destroy it, anyone can use it. Long ago, shredding documents was thought to be suspect activity. This is not the case now. Identity Theft, privacy violations and information based fraud is the fastest growing crime in the US. Effective paper shredding and document destruction are your answer to this situation.
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