What Is a “Shred-Everything” Policy?
I just returned from my vacation, sat down at my desk, and started getting organized for my first day back at work. My colleague, Joanne, who sits next to me, asked about my vacation. I said, “You won’t believe it, but on the flight home, the airline put me in First Class. It was amazing.” I pulled the boarding passes from my handbag and showed her.
“What did you do to deserve this?” she asked. “Being your typical bright and cheery perfect passenger, I’ll bet.” I laughed as she watched me toss the passes into the garbage can and then proceeded to clean out the rest of my handbag from the remnants of my trip.
Joanne stared at me in shock. “What are you doing? You can’t just throw those in the trash!”
“Why? Just because I was in First Class? Are you one of those people who don’t throw away anything?”
“You better believe it,” she said. “I never throw stuff like this out. I send it to the shredder.”
“Oh. That’s not what I expected to hear you say. Why would you want to shred your boarding passes?” I was more than curious.
“First of all, you know how much personal information these things carry? Dumpster-diving identity thieves love this kind of stuff. And not just boarding passes. Credit card and ATM receipts, prescription labels, and magazines are just a few things you probably toss that have valuable information.”
“You can’t be serious,” I replied. “It never really occurred to me. What else should I not be throwing away? How would I even know what is good and what is bad?” Our conversation moved from the details of my vacation to the details of shredding private information.
What is a Shred-Everything Policy?
Shredding your sensitive documents is crucial for protecting your business, staff, and clients’ personal information. Your company may have a list of specific documents that must be shredded, leaving your staff to decide what to shred and what to toss. By implementing a shred-everything policy, you eliminate the list and the decision-making burden from your staff. If you’re trying to lower the volume of paper you’re shredding with your list, you are increasing the risk of human error at the same time. Shred-everything requires that every document be shredded when it expires, no matter what. Expiry even means that junk mail you don’t want goes to the shred container right away. Shredding-it-all errs on the side of caution but also:
- Saves time
- Is stress-free
- Eliminates the oversight of trashing sensitive information
What are the Benefits of a Shred-Everything Policy?
- Lower Risk of Security Breaches: The ultimate result of shredding it all is a significantly reduced risk of security breaches. The potential costs of civil and class action lawsuits, paying reparations, fines, damaging your business and personal reputation, and ultimately losing the trust of your customers are far too high. The average cost of a data breach worldwide continues to rise, reaching 4.45 million US dollars in 2023. According to Statista, the healthcare sector has the highest average cost of a data breach. The US is at the top of the list of countries most affected by data breach costs, with an average total cost of $9.48 million per breach.
- Remaining Compliant with Government Laws and Regulations: Adhering to information security regulations, such as:
- Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
- Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act
- Accidentally exposing your business, staff, or customers’ personal information through discarded documents risks damaging reputations and lives. If you are a small company, such breaches could even force you out of business. Each mistake or mishap means your company is noncompliant with security laws. When you discard papers into the trash or recycling container and place them out for pick up, those un-shredded papers are free for the taking. Identity thieves intentionally target trash and recycling to gather valuable information to piece together enough of an identity to gain access to financial and medical accounts and more. Once personal information is released, it can never be retrieved. With a shred-everything policy, you won’t ever have to worry that any information will land in the hands of anyone attempting to cause harm.
How Should I Implement a Shred-Everything Policy?
- Train Your Staff: Education and motivation are key so that everyone is on the same page, understands the benefits, and feels like a supported team. Ensure that staff members not only know how important it is to shred everything, but have the confidence to hold each other accountable, follow through, and watch for and solve weak areas in the execution of the policy. A simple guideline to develop your policy is:
- Documents are never discarded to the trash or recycle. Shred them.
- Upon expiration of every document, shred it.
- Maintain the policy with training and personal accountability.
Can We Shred Our Own Paper?
Do-it-yourself shredding is possible but not recommended. If you implement a shred-everything policy, you must ensure that your documents are shredded so that it is impossible for the information to be read or reconstructed. Otherwise, your shred-everything policy is of little value. It is worth the investment to partner with a professional shredding company. Partner with a shredding company that:
- Is compliant with all laws and shreds your documents so the information is impossible to recover. A professional shredding company can shred quickly and efficiently with industrial-size shredding equipment.
- Recycles 100% of your shredded material. Protecting your information is crucial, and protecting the earth and environment is important as well. You can do both when you choose to have your documents shredded by a reputable shredding company that cares as much about both as you do.
- Offers scheduled shredding so that your documents aren’t sitting idle and vulnerable to being lost or stolen.
- Provides shred collection containers to protect all your documents from when they are discarded to when they are picked up by the shredding company technician.
- Provides a Certificate of Destruction after every shredding job so that you have proof of compliance.
By implementing a shred-everything policy, you protect your business from potential data breaches, comply with government regulations, and ensure that your staff is consistently safeguarding sensitive information. It’s a comprehensive approach that ultimately provides peace of mind and protects all parties involved.
Pacific Shredding is a NAID AAA Certified shredding company that will ensure your documents are protected from the time they are picked up to when they are destroyed in compliance with all privacy laws. We will provide you with a Certificate of Destruction as proof that your documents have been completely destroyed. To make sure that your shred-everything policy is effective, give us a call at 800-685-9034 or complete the form on this page.