5 Common Misconceptions about Shredding

Ever played the game, Two Truths and a Lie? In this group activity, each person shares two unknown but true things about themselves and then makes up one that isn’t true. The rest of the group then attempts to guess which one was the lie. It’s a great game to discover fun accurate facts about each other.

With nearly-instant sharing of information via the internet, it doesn’t take a game to quickly spread misinformation. Fortunately, you can also fact check information.

Having been in the shredding industry since 1956, we’ve heard it all. Have you heard any of these myths and misconceptions?

Shredding Misconception Game

So, here’s a little game of Shredding Misconception. Below are 5 tricky questions about shredding. Feel free to test yourself!.

1. Which types of businesses are required to destroy their sensitive information?

All of them! Every single business entity that stores and uses personally identifiable information (PII) is responsible to protect that information and destroy it at the end of its lifecycle. No matter how many employees you have, how big your business is, or what you do, your company is responsible.

2. How small must paper be shredded to comply with data privacy laws?

Data privacy laws don’t stipulate a shred size at all. Instead, they state that documents must be destroyed so that they can’t be read or reconstructed. So, there is no official legal size. Secondly, your documents can be destroyed a number of ways, not just by shredding. However, shredding is considered one of the most secure and effective methods of destroying hard copies of confidential documents and is the most common destruction method used by businesses and organizations the world over.

3. Storing documents indefinitely is the best way to avoid the requirement to destroy them. True or false?

False. Storing your documents indefinitely leads to two other compliance issues:

• First, by storing them indefinitely, you neglect to abide by the document’s legal retention period. Different types of records have specific retention periods and must be destroyed on their final disposition date.
• Second, by holding on to private information longer than necessary, you put it at risk of being lost, stolen, or even subpoenaed in a legal case.

4. It is better to DIY shred until you can afford to pay a shredding company. True or false?

False. When you add up the costs, DIY shredding is more expensive. By using a professional shredding company, you avoid these DIY expenses:

• The purchase cost, repair, and replacement of shredding equipment.
• The valuable staff time required to operate the shredder, feeding in just a few pages at a time, clearing jams, emptying the shred collection container, and waiting for the machine to cool down even few minutes.
• The risk you take that someone may get injured while using the shredding machine. Worker’s compensation claims for shredder-related injuries are more common than you might think.
• The inability to recycle your destroyed paper because shredded paper often can’t be accepted in the curbside recycling stream. As a result, it ends up in landfill instead of being recycled into new paper products.

5. Choosing the most affordable shredding company should be top priority. True or false?

False. The most affordable shredding company is the one that best fits all of your needs. If you want to reduce your risk of data breaches and be compliant with data privacy laws, look for a NAID AAA Certified shredding company.

The International Secure Information Governance & Management Association (i-SIGMA) issues NAID AAA Certification only when a shredding company has met their stringent security and ethical guidelines and complies with all known data protection laws, confirmed by an independent data security specialist during surprise audits so you know your information is secure. Any NAID AAA Certified shredding company will be able to issue you a Certificate of Destruction as proof that your documents have been in a legally-compliant manner.

How Did You Do?

Tally up your score. Did you call our bluff five out of five, or learn something you didn’t know before? Now that we’ve cleared up some of the common misconceptions about shredding, you can move forward with confidence.

Pacific Shredding provides NAID AAA Certified shredding services to businesses and residents of California’s Central Valley, from Fresno to Sacramento and everywhere in between. Our background-screened, professionally-trained shredding technicians are knowledgeable and can help you with any shredding questions or concerns. For more information about secure shredding or to book your shredding service, simply give us a call at 800-685-9034 or complete the form on this page.