What to shred?

What information requires destruction – in a word EVERYTHING and IT’S THE LAW!

All businesses have customer lists, phone lists, price lists, sales statistics, drafts of bids and correspondence, and even memos containing information about business activity would interest any competitor. Every business is also entrusted with information that must be kept private. Employees and customers have the legal right to have this data protected. Without the proper safeguards, this information most often ends up in the dumpster where it is readily and legally available to anyone. Trash is considered by business espionage professionals as the single most available source of competitive and private information from the average business. Any establishment that discards private and proprietary data without the safeguard of destruction is liable for criminal and civil prosecution, as well as the costly loss of customers and productivity.

Without a program to control it, the daily trash of every business contains information that could be harmful. This information is especially useful to competitors because it contains the details of current activities. Discarded daily records include phone messages, memos, Post-Its, employee “To Do” lists, misprinted forms, worksheets, drafts of bids and drafts of correspondence. All businesses suffer potential exposure due to the need to discard these incidental business records. The only means of minimizing the risk is to make sure such information is securely collected and destroyed.