Why
Shred?
HIPAA
The Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act (HIPAA), enacted by the federal government in 1996, is intended to safeguard the privacy of patient health records.
The law provides for stiff penalties for companies found to be in violation of HIPAA regulations. A full
text of HIPAA regulations is available from the U.S. Department of Human Services.
(See Links page.) Back
to Top Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Act (GLB) The
Gramm Leach Bliley Act (GLB), also known as the Financial Modernization Act of
1999, is a federal law that forces a financial institution to “respect the
privacy of its customers and to protect the security and confidentiality of those
customers’ non-public personal information.” The law provides for stiff
penalties for companies found to be in violation of its regulations. For
more information about the Gramm Leach Billey Act, see Links
section. Back
to Top FACTA The
Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act, also known as FACTA or the FACT Act,
was signed into federal law on Dec. of 2003. It contains a number of mandates
intended to combat consumer fraud and related crimes, including identity theft.
Specifically, it requires the destruction of all paper documents containing identifiable
consumer information. The
text: Section 682.3 of
the law states: “Any person who maintains or otherwise possesses consumer
information, or any compilation of consumer information, for business purposes
must properly dispose of such information by taking reasonable measures to protect
against unauthorized access to or use of the information in connection with its
disposal.” Shredding
of such documents “so that the information cannot be practicably be read
or reconstructed” meets the law’s standard.
For more information
about the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act, see Links
section.
Back
to Top Identity
Theft Identity
theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States. Businesses are entrusted
with all types of confidential information, and each business needs to do their
part to prevent identity theft by safeguarding this information. Destroy
your confidential documents in order to protect your employees, your clients or
patients and yourself. Documents containing names, addresses, Social Security
numbers, credit card and bank account numbers, etc. should be shredded when they
are no longer needed.
Back
to Top Corporate
Security Your
information—in the form of business plans, product designs, account lists,
business proposals, blueprints, and drawings—is the foundation of your company.
Discarded information that makes its way into wastebaskets, garbage cans, and
dumpsters is the single most available source of competitive and private data
about your company. It’s this information that has all the makings of corporate
espionage. - Customer
Account lists
- Business
Plans
- Plans for New Products
- Financial
Statement
- Payroll Data
- Cancelled
checks
When it comes
to stealing corporate secrets by retrieving documents from trash cans and dumpsters:
- The law is firmly
on the side of the “bad guys.”
- Courts
have consistently ruled that by discarding data into the trash, you have indicated
that it is of no value to you.
- The
taking of this “useless information,” no matter what the intent, is
protected by the law.
- Shredding
discarded material will render it unreadable—hence, useless—to those
attempting to capitalize on your information.
Back
to Top
Internal
Security Your
internal personnel should not be responsible for document destruction. Clearly,
payroll data, personnel records, and materials that involve labor relations or
legal affairs should not be entrusted to entry level employees for destruction.
Potential dangers also arise when rank-and-file workers are asked to destroy competition-sensitive
data. Destruction of classified
information is best left to a carefully selected, professional document destruction
company. Back
to Top
Links that pertain to the document
destruction issue
GLB
http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/glbact/
http://banking.senate.gov/conf/confrpt.htm FACTA
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs6a-facta.htm HIPAA
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacysummary.rtf Identity
Theft
Federal
Trade Commission
Department
of Justice
Clearinghouse
of Identity Theft
Back
to Top
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