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As a business, your company’s and your clients’ privacy should be paramount. Without privacy, you’re leaving your business open to attack from people who could make use of your confidential information to damage your business or your reputation. There can be a great deal of sensitive information contained within business documents, so using secure document destruction to dispose of these documents when they’re no longer needed is not just a good idea – it’s essential.

So what is secure document destruction? Quite simply, it’s a way of managing the cycle of a document’s life – most secure document destruction companies will provide a facility for you to store the documents, collect it periodically and then destroy the documents before recycling the paper. It ensures complete security of information, as well as being environmentally friendly. It’s a more complete solution than just shredding the paper – that costs your business time, increases your waste and isn’t as secure. Using a secure document destruction company gives you peace of mind that your confidential information has been dealt with in the most secure way possible.

As well as being beneficial from a security perspective, secure document destruction will also help your company satisfy its legal obligations with regards to the management of information. The 1988 Privacy Act, and its amendments in 2000, mean that businesses have a legal duty to protect personal information. This act is enforced by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, to whom citizens can appeal if they feel their privacy has been violated. Even failing to answer the Commissioner carries a penalty of $2,000 or a year in prison – this is how seriously the Australian government takes privacy violations.

It’s quite clear then, that businesses need to have a system in place for dealing with sensitive information. But what documents should be considered ‘sensitive’? The list could me more extensive than you might think and includes anything with personal contact information on it, so not just staff records but also items like CVs for candidates you didn’t even interview. Suppose you hired a new staff member, but in doing so received 20 applications for that post, each one with someone’s contact details on. All those applications are now documents in your possession that you need to securely destroy. If someone’s personal information is taken from your waste and used in a fraudulent manner, then you could be held accountable, whether you actually employed that person or not.

Other documents are more obvious – bank statements, minutes for meetings, disciplinary records, invoices, financial accounts and many others. Basically, if you’re about to throw any document away, think about whether a competitor could use it or whether it could leave someone vulnerable to identity theft. Draft invoices may seem like innocuous bits of papers, but they contain a client’s name and address as well as your business’s bank details. You might find that there is very little in your line of work that doesn’t constitute sensitive information, and it’s better to be safe than sorry. Plus, if you know it’s all going to be recycled then you don’t need to feel bad about throwing it away.

In terms of best practice, it helps to have a company policy on sensitive information. This details your obligations under the Privacy Act and it reassures anyone trading with you that you have a system in place for dealing with their information. The policy should have a named, reputable secure document destruction company and every staff member should have a guide as to what are to be considered sensitive documents. Once that’s done, you know you’ve done everything you can to protect your business and your customers.


For nearly 15 years Shred-X Document Destruction has been the leader in secure destruction services. We assist organisations in complying with the Privacy Act 1988 and its Amendments providing tailored services to thousands of commercial sites and households across Australia. Our secure destruction services include document destruction, digital media destruction (hard drives, CDs, credit cards), archive box cleanouts, and uniform destruction to name a few.