Tips for Keeping Private Documents Private
Picturing a mega-scale shredding of documents may bring to mind somebody with something shady to hide, but actually there are several good reasons why it’s natural for every business to need to keep some information private. In fact, far from suspicious, keeping certain eyes away from various kinds of sensitive information is actually an inevitable part of doing business.
Here are some tips for how to keep your sensitive documents private
Proprietary Info
There are companies dedicated solely to making sure that you keep your sensitive documents safe and out of the wrong people’s hands, such as Absolute Destruction Corp. This is important: over the course of years, businesses accumulate proprietary information they need to keep hidden from competitors, rather than from legal authorities. It may have to do with their assessment of the market, internal communications, payroll information, or something else altogether. Running a business successfully requires the generating of such information, and naturally it must be kept private.
Disposing of such sensitive information is…well, sensitive. It wouldn’t be hard to do if it was only a matter of a few pieces of paper, but usually there’s a lot more than that, and of course most contemporary businesses have stored the information digitally. Many businesses generate a ton of such material, and guaranteeing that it is all disposed of safely and totally is, practically speaking, difficult.
Fraud Protection
Even if the information you build up over the years isn’t particularly secretive, even non-sensitive data can be used by nefarious third-parties to enable things like identify fraud. If a bad actor acquires enough seemingly benign data, they may be able to twist it into something dangerous. Basically, with this in mind, any information at all can become sensitive information. Shredding papers yourself can feel satisfying, like an aggressive form of de-cluttering. But if you’ve been at it for years you’re likely to have accumulated a great bulk of information, be it physical pieces of paper or terabytes of data. That’s where industrial document shredding services comes in.
Professional Shredders
There are a few requirements that must be met when it comes to shredding documents: You want it to be done discreetly, comprehensively, in a way that’s environmentally friendly, and for the experience to have excellent customer service at all stages.
Opting for a corporate shredder, rather than doing it yourself, gives you something crucial: peace of mind. Electronic data can’t just be smashed and thrown into the trash—it must be disposed of in such a way that the data on the chips cannot be retrieved. Reliability and security is essential.
Find a company that can come to you, and either dispose of your information on site or securely bring it to theirs to be destroyed. Some companies like Absolute Destruction give out a certificate after the job is done, a guarantee that your sensitive information is gone forever. This assurance is invaluable. Corporate espionage can be well-funded and sophisticated and, given recent world events, we often first think of computer hackers. But it can also include accessing physical or electronic documents that weren’t properly disposed of, too.
In business it’s wise to keep your cards close to your chest, and this means trusting the professionals to ensure that your sensitive documents are safe.