It is an old practice of ours to dump the documents which are no longer required by us. But we forget that some of these documents may contain sensitive information about us, which may jeopardize our privacy and security. This becomes a matter of even greater concern for business firms, who have to deal with loads of data of various customers.
Thus, just dumping these confidential documents into the trash is no longer a viable option. There is a possibility of these documents falling into wrong hands. And however small the possibility is, we must be cautious as implications could be severe.
But don’t worry; there is a simple and easily available solution in the form of shredding. Shredding of documents is easier, cost effective and especially more effective than dumping.
Here are 7 reasons to convince you of the advantages shredding of documents holds over dumping.
1. Identity Theft – Identity theft is when someone gets access to your personal information like name, DoB, address, social security number etc and uses these to impersonate you virtually. If you dump documents containing your personal information, chances are that you could become a victim of identity theft. According to a report, 16.6 million people in the USA were victims of identity theft in 2012.
2. Security reasons – When you dump documents containing sensitive information, it is probable that wrong people get their hand on your telephone numbers or email ids. You may start getting spam calls and emails. This information may also be used to obtain other personal information of yours.
3. Bound by Law – In many places, the business firms are bound by the law to get rid of documents containing confidential information of their clients. In case they are not destroyed properly, it could jeopardize the customer’s privacy. Even if the firms are not bound by the law, it is their moral obligation to their clients to shred these documents.
4. Not easy to recover – When the documents are shredded, it becomes almost impossible to retrieve the information contained in them. Thus, it ensures that client’s privacy is never compromised.
5. Recyclable – The by-products i.e. the shredded bits and pieces are easily recyclable. In this way, you are playing a part in protecting your environment along with protecting your privacy.
6. No fire hazard – When you try to get rid of your documents yourselves by burning them, there is a chance of a fire hazard. Thus, shredding the documents is a lot safer option.
7. Saves time and money – Calling a professional shredding service like Shredding Services Vancouver would save you a lot of money. You would be spared of installation and maintenance of a paper shredder.
Nowadays, there are many firms which provide on-call shredding services which would come to your place on a single call. If it comes to mass shredding, there is no better alternative. It is an easy, fast and effective method to get rid of those unnecessary documents which occupy loads of spaces in your workplace.
Although we are going digital with most of the data being stored online, there are still paper documents which contain sensitive information about a person. These documents are more than capable of jeopardizing a company’s and/or their client’s privacy, which calls for proper shredding of documents rather than dumping into the trash.
