Legal document shredding

Because of the prevalence of consumer fraud and identity theft, the Federal Government now mandates legal document shredding including protected information for clients, employees and associates.  Maintaining these files in office beyond their usefulness is now a liability as cited in The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003. This federal law mandates the destruction of documents that contain protected information.

The FACT Act states:
Sec. 682.3 Proper disposal of consumer information.
A) Standard. Any person who maintains or otherwise possesses consumer information, or any compilation of consumer information, for a business purpose 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.
B) Examples. Reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to or use of consumer information in connection with its disposal would include implementing and monitoring compliance with policies and procedures that require the burning, pulverizing, or shredding of papers containing consumer information so that the information cannot practicably be read or reconstructed.

Other Federal and International Statutes that protect private information include:

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal U.S. law that protects the privacy of student education records.

The Financial Modernization Act of 1999, also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act), protects the privacy of consumer information held by financial institutions and requires companies to give consumers privacy notices that explain the institutions information-sharing practices. The Act also provides consumers with the right to limit some sharing of their information.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996: (HIPAA) is a United States federal law that requires health care organizations to “maintain reasonable and appropriate, technical, and physical safeguards to prevent intentional or unintentional use or disclosure of protected health information.” Protected health information (PHI) includes patient medical records, patient logs, insurance, billing and other personally identifiable health information.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted following a series of high-profile accounting scandals in the United States, most notably Enron and Worldcom. SOX is intended to enhance corporate responsibility and financial reporting as well as combat corporate and accounting fraud. It is one of the most complex pieces of legislation passed in the United States in recent years and includes some of the most far reaching reforms of American business practices since the 1930’s.

US Safe Harbor Program: The European Union’s directive on data protection which prohibits the transfer of personal data to US companies which do not meet the Commission’s standards for privacy protection.

These statutes all protect the rights of individuals not to have their personal information shared without their consent or knowledge.  Increasingly, the laws point to businesses as being liable for protecting the information of their clients, employees or associates.  In order to comply with the law, legal document shredding is a requisite for all businesses.

As a result of increasing incidents of identity theft, have brought to light the means by which it is commonly perpetrated. Many businesses commonly throw away paper which contains private information such as names, addresses, social security numbers etc in trash bins. This is one of the easiest ways for criminals to steal private information which can be used for illegal purposes. It has become common knowledge in the Bay Area that paper trash should be disposed of after destruction. Therefore, it is vital that a method for legal document shredding be included in your company’s document management system.

You may arrange for a regular pick up of your documents, or, in the interest of time, you can bring your documents directly to our shredding center and even observe the documents as they are being destroyed. After the documents are destroyed, we Our machines can handle any documents including x-rays and plastics.

The secure location and reliable service provided with Red Dog Shred can alleviate your legal document shredding concerns.