In general, companies need to shred any confidential information that is no longer required for business purposes or, as the shredding law states. Confidential waste often refers to the information that contains the personal data of customers, employees, suppliers, and others. Different information types may potentially put a company in a data breach. This data may include the following:
- Financial data of a company, clients, and other stakeholders.
- Business plans prepared by a company.
- Branding and marketing plan of a company.
- Business processes, patents and other sensitive information.
Why does a company need to dispose of confidential waste?
Some of the most significant reason for disposing of confidential information securely includes:
- Legal Obligations: Any business must follow laws prescribed in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), making the company responsible for maintaining people’s personal information.If a company breaches GDPR, they are liable for a fine. Both online and document-based data breaches may result in hefty fines if a business fails to protect customers’ information.
- Helps Prevent Security Breaches: It is critical to know that paper-relates security breaches happen all the time, making it mandatory to maintain a secure, confidential waste disposal plan. Adhering to a personal shredding policy and utilizing the services of a professional shredding company to help deal with your business waste can significantly subsidize the chances of a data breach.
- Ethical Obligations: Security breaches often violate your customers’ privacy. Depending on the level of the data breach, the consequences can damage a company’s reputation. Privacy breaches put your customers at risk, simultaneously making them lose faith in your organization. Diluting security show disrespect towards the law and is also a violation of ethical principles.
- Helps Create More Space: Large cabinets, boxes, and cupboards stuffed with documents that are no longer needed to take up your valuable space while causing potential data theft. USA shredding offers services with the help of their shredding partners to help de-clutter your space. The company can arrange on-site shredding, off-site shredding, and hard drive destruction and can destroy any medium containing sensitive information.
When to Shred Company’s Confidential Information?
Below are some factors to consider that can help decide when to shred your company’s confidential information:
- Review your company’s data retention policies: A business should maintain clear policies on how long certain documents and data need to be retained. The stakeholders need to review these policies regularly and must ensure that they are only keeping what the company needs while shredding all the material that is no longer required.
- Consider the sensitivity of the critical information: Some types of confidential information, like financial data or customer information, are considered more sensitive than other data. A company must ensure that they have clear guidelines for the handling and disposing of any piece of information in any form.
- Follow all the legal requirements: Depending on the industry, there are different legal requirements that clearly state how long certain types of information a company can retain. You must be very sure to follow all the specific guidelines to help avoid any legal issues that may arise in the future.
- Protect against data breaches: It is critical to understand that the longer confidential information is retained, the higher the risk of a data breach. As soon as it is no longer needed shredding information and destroying data in any form is essential. This will help reduce the risk of data theft.
- Use a professional shredding service: A professional shredding service can ensure that confidential information is shredded as per the norms and disposed of accordingly. USA Shredding Services is a platform where you can find a variety of shredding service providers and choose according to your unique needs. The shredding partners of USA shredding, apart from securely shredding your confidential information, also manage a safe disposal plan by recycling all the shredded material, thus helping in keeping the environment green.
Conclusion
In summary, it is vital to regularly review a company’s data retention policies, follow legal requirements, and use a professional shredding service to protect themselves against data breaches. Doing so can ensure that your company’s confidential information is appropriately managed and disposed of in a correct manner.