How does your company deal with outdated or redundant data? Although it’s tempting to simply throw it out, information destruction can be risky business especially if you’re unsure of your legal obligations and the risk associated with noncompliance. This is where partnering with a NAID certified company like Shred-X can be really powerful.
So what is NAID? The National Association for Information Destruction is the international trade association for companies offering secure information destruction services. Essentially, NAID regulate the procedures a destruction company employs to provide a service that consistently upholds legal and ethical standards. To become NAID ‘AAA’ Certified, companies must undergo rigorous training and screening processes (including a federal police clearance) and must successfully pass random audits to ensure adherence to the stringent standards of the certification.
So why use a NAID ‘AAA’ Certified service provider? Here are just a few of the reasons you should:
1. AVOID PRIVACY BREACH + FINANCIAL PENALTIES –
The most fundamental reason to outsource your destruction needs to a ‘AAA’ Certified provider is to ensure that you are meeting your legal and ethical obligations in terms of privacy. To meet these obligations, appropriate destruction procedures and guidelines must be in place. Furthermore, failure to implement such procedures leaves you vulnerable to breaches in privacy and can result in hefty fines for both individuals ($340,000) and organisations ($1,700,000). By outsourcing your information destruction to a certified company like Shred-X, you can be sure that all legal requirements are upheld so that your private information remains private right to the very end.
2. PROVIDE CERTIFICATE OF DESTRUCTION
Protecting your business from privacy breaches and subsequent penalties is one thing, but how do you establish your compliance to the governing bodies? As a requirement of maintaining our NAID ‘AAA’ Certification, Shred-X will provide you with a certificate of destruction at the end of every transaction. This document is gold should you be audited as it can save a lot of time and stress when confirming your adherence to privacy legislation.
3. IT’S IN OUR BEST INTERESTS AS MUCH AS YOURS…
By taking on a clients’ destruction needs, we essentially take on responsibility for the privacy of your information. Obtaining a NAID ‘AAA’ Certification means that we agree to be audited at random to ensure the highest standard is consistently upheld. Not only are we 100% dedicated to achieving secure destruction for your company, we are committed to upholding our reputation by ensuring your private data is safeguarded at every stage of it’s lifecycle.
4. BUT YOU’VE GOT AN IN-HOUSE SHREDDER…
The biggest problem with office shredders is that they lack the capacity to completely destroy your information. The shreddings produced by most in-house shredders can actually be reassembled, so the fact that they generally end up in a public bin where anyone can access them is quite concerning. Aside from the privacy issues, they’re just a massive waste of time! As most office shredders are only small, the office assistant can be there all day pulling pages out of folders, removing staples and feeding through tiny stacks at a time (whilst praying it doesn’t jam)! By placing your information destruction needs in our capable hands, you relinquish the time and effort involved with destroying data whilst remaining confident that privacy is maintained throughout every stage – from collection to secure destruction – allowing you to get on with the more important parts of your day.
5. AND DELETED YOUR DIGITAL DATA…
When digital information becomes redundant, the obvious thing to do is delete it, right? Deleting your data is a good start, however it doesn’t ensure that it will remain unseen. Passed through the wrong hands, a device’s deleted files and information can easily be recovered and viewed or shared, exposing your company to potential privacy leaks and legal repercussions. Although it is tempting to repurpose your digital devices when the information they contain is no longer needed, the only way to completely ensure your data remains private is to destroy it. With the assistance of Shred-X, this can be accomplished this by two means: degaussing and physical destruction. For those unfamiliar with the term, degaussing simply means that we send magnetic waves through the device to render its data unusable. From there, the remains are physically destroyed allowing you total piece of mind.
If you would like to learn more about your privacy obligations, or simply need a tailored solution for your business, contact Shred-X today.