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Why Shred: |
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Sensitive information, in the wrong
hands, can become a serious liability. Whether your company is large
or small, you have information that must be kept private. Customer
lists, drafts of bids and letters, even memos, contain information
about your business activity that would interest any competitor. Your
business is also entrusted with private information about employees
and customers which you are legally required to protect. In 1974 the
Federal government enacted the Federal Privacy Act to protect the
privacy of individuals and businesses. All government agencies as well
as the private sector can be held liable if any personal information
is released to unauthorized individuals.
In addition, there are growing public
concerns about privacy and identity theft. Because identity theft is
the fastest growing crime in America the government has created state
and federal mandates to regulate information security. For example,
Federal regulations regarding patient privacy (HIPAA),
impose fines up to $25,000 per occurrence for knowingly compromising
personal health information.
If your organization is privy to private
information and that information becomes public, it could be argued in
a court of law that you had a responsibility to protect it, and are,
therefore, liable for any damages. To protect your organization
against the risk of liability it is smart business practice to
routinely shred stored records as soon as their retention period is
up, and to routinely shred daily documents as soon as they have
outlived their usefulness. |
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More Reasons to Shred: |
1.
Your Duty to Secure the Privacy of Others:
IDENTITY
THEFT and information based fraud is the fastest growing
crime in America! 1 out of every 5 people is a victim of identity theft.
Victims spend an average of 200 hours over a 3-year period and spend
over one thousand dollars of out-of-pocket expenses to recover from
the effects of having their identity stolen.
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Protect
your customers. |
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At
the very least, you have an “implied contract” to protect
their information, simply based on the fact that you are collecting
their data to conduct business. They have a legal contractual right
to expect you to take every precaution to protect it, which can only
be accomplished by shredding the data before it is discarded. |
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Privacy
laws require you to keep your customers’ personal information private.
Their confidential information can neither be disclosed to the public,
nor to unauthorized personnel in your own office. |
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Protect
your employees (current and former) |
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They
have a legal right to have their personal information secured by shredding
their data before it is discarded. |
2.
Your Company’s Information Security:
What would it cost
your company, your customers and your employees if sensitive information
were to fall into the wrong hands? |
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Corporate
Espionage
An estimated 7 billion dollars was lost last year
alone to corporate espionage. |
Don't let your company's sensitive
documents fall
into his possession! |
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Dumpster
Diving is legal - The U.S. Supreme court has ruled that information
thrown in your trash is fair game to anyone.
It’s estimated that 70% of all espionage involves dumpster diving. |
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The
FBI estimates the theft of proprietary information costs U.S. corporations
$42 billion annually. |
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Competition
Make sure your business STAYS
your business. |
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Former
and Current Employees
Employees are the most likely to realize the value of discarded company
information. It is important to safeguard your company’s proprietary
information, not only from competitors,
but also from unauthorized personnel within your own organization. |
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Trade
Information Rights
If you don’t protect your trade information, the courts won’t
either. |
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3.
Convenience:
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Attractive
Locked Security Containers (consoles and/or bins) provided to
you FREE of charge to be placed strategically in your facility,
in locations convenient for your staff to use to dispose of confidential
materials. |
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No
need to sort paper by color or grade or remove staples, paper
clips, alligator clips, binding, or any other items attached to
materials. |
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Once
your documents are easily placed in the locked security containers,
within seconds your job is done! |
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No
need to call for routine service. We automatically have you scheduled
for service - timely pickups are based upon your needs. |
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Only
ShredAssured and the designated contact within your
organization has a key to access these security containers. |
 
The Wrong Way!
The Right Way with ShredAssured!
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4.
Cost Efficiency:
Are you still using
an office shredder? Time is money! |
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We
can do it cheaper, more secure, and more efficiently than you
can do with an in house office shredder. |
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We
guarantee you that the savings will be significant. |
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In
15 minutes we can destroy what it would take an office shredder
days to do. |
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In-house
shredding will not handle large volumes and may prompt employees
to circumvent the destruction process. |
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Stop
wasting valuable employee time at the office shredder. |
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No
security container fees, travel fees, disposal fees or recycling
fees with our monthly routine service. |
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Free
up office space from stored outdated information. |
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Lower
utility expenses. |
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Eliminate
equipment outlay and maintenance costs. |
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5.
Regulatory Compliance:
Could your company
survive a lawsuit?
Various state, federal and international regulations govern the protection
of private information. Disclosing private information — even by
accident — could be grounds for a lawsuit. A secure, reliable shredding
program will assist you in remaining legally compliant with privacy
laws. |
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Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”):
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) enacted
in 1996 includes provisions to safeguard the privacy of patient health
records. The HIPAA rules apply to all protected health information
whether it is kept electronically, on paper, or communicated orally.
Hospitals, individual doctors, pharmacies, and other businesses involved
in the healthcare industry are currently in the process of designing
procedures that will comply with the new HIPAA rules. |
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Gramm-Leach-Bliley
(GLB) Act: This Act requires that financial institutions
take steps to ensure the security and confidentiality of its customers
non-public personal information including personally identifiable information
such as Social Security numbers, passwords or access codes for bank
accounts, credit cards, ATM cards, financial assets of an individual,
consumer credit reports, financial account numbers for an individual,
and other similar such financial information that is attributable to
a particular individual. The harm caused by “identity theft”
has led the federal government to create mandates such as this in order
to prevent even the negligent disclosure of sensitive personal information.
GLB covers a wide array of financial activities. The definition of a
“financial institution” under GLB is extremely broad, including
preparers of individual tax returns, providers of real estate settlement
services and debt collection agencies. |
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The
1974 Federal Privacy Act was established to insure that government
agencies protect the privacy of individuals and businesses with regard
to information held by them and to hold these agencies liable if any
information is released without authorization. |
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Securities
Exchange Commission (SEC) — Regulation S-P: The purpose
of this Regulation is to bring businesses regulated by the SEC into
compliance with the concepts for privacy outlined under the GLB Act.
This Act applies to broker-dealers, funds, registered advisors, those
who deal with variable annuity or variable life insurance, and any other
entities dealing in Securities. |
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Safe
Harbor Privacy Principles: In October 1998, the European
Union’s wide-sweeping privacy legislation — called the European
Union Data Protection Directive — became effective. The Directive
places new requirements on businesses that wish to collect, process
or transfer personal data from an EU Member State to an non-EU Member
State. Under the Directive, the transfer of personal information from
an EU Member State to a non-EU country is forbidden unless the country
and the company involved provide an “adequate” level of
privacy protection. |
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FERMA exists to
widen and raise the culture of Risk Management throughout Europe to its
members and to the risk management and insurance community. It achieves
its aims by promotion and raising awareness of risk management through
the media, by information sharing, educational and research projects. |
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FACTA
(2003): The new Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act
of 2003 (FACTA) amends the current Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
to "prevent identity theft, improve resolutions of consumer disputes,
improve accuracy of consumer records, make improvements in the use of,
and consumer access to credit information, and for other purposes." |
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Sarbanes
Oxley Act (2002) was passed to implement changes in federal
securities regulation, corporate governance, and the regulation or auditors.
It expanded federal white-collar laws criminalizing the destruction
of certain corporate communications and documents. |
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Federal
Rule 26: By not adhering to a program of routinely destroying
stored records, a company exhibits suspicious disposal practices that
could be negatively construed in the event of litigation or audit. Destroying
on a set schedule limits your legal risks. |
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FERPA
is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.
The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable
program of the U.S. Department of Education. FERPA gives parents certain
rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights
transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends
a school beyond the high school level. |
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Fair
Credit Reporting: Enforced by the Federal Trade Commission,
is designed to promote accuracy and ensure the privacy of the information
used in consumer reports. Recent amendments to the Act expand your rights
and place additional requirements on Consumer Reporting Agencies. Businesses that supply information
about you to Consumer Reporting Agencies and those that use consumer reports also have new
responsibilities under the law. |
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Economic
Espionage Act makes the theft or misappropriation of trade
secrets a criminal offense, and is the first federal law that purports
to both broadly define and severely punish such misappropriation and
theft. |
6.
Recycling:
Don’t just secure your company’s confidential documents. Help
secure the environment as well. |
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All
shredded materials go directly to a paper recycler. |
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Shredded
materials are recycled into materials such as paper towels, toilet
paper, cardboard, corrugated boxes, etc. |
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For
every ton of paper recycled, you help save 17 trees and 3 cubic
yards of landfill space. |
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CAUTION!
Recycling alone does NOT establish
the necessary requirements of information destruction. |
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Any
document containing confidential information must be destroyed
prior to being sent to a recycler. |
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Your
legal and fiduciary obligations may require you to establish a
legal chain of custody for destroyed documents
(Who, What, When, Where and How they were destroyed). |
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