How To Incorporate Recycling Into Your Daily Life

Do You Have a Clear Policy in Place to Deal with Paper Records?

22 July 2019 by Alberto Williams

If you run a complex business, then you will need to deal with a lot of information on a daily basis. Some of this info may relate to your business practices or operational methods, other data may relate to your employees and still more material may contain sensitive or personal information related to your customers. You have a moral obligation to keep this information safe and secure, but you also have a legal obligation as well. After all, people are becoming much more sensitive about their personal data these days, and this has led to a host of new legislation. Are you being careful enough with your paper documentation or do you need to take further steps as soon as possible?

Digital and Physical Data

Many companies will store data in the cloud or through some other digital form as this is more practical and takes up less space. As you know, certain laws govern how this data can be stored, and some of it may need to be encrypted. This means that you or your service provider must provide additional layers of protection, firewalls, secure passwords and other methods. Yet you may still be required to retain physical documents for a certain amount of time so that you can comply with various laws and regulations. If so, you should have a very clear policy in place to make sure that you only keep those documents for as long as you are required to and that you get rid of them immediately thereafter.

Concerted Steps

The only way to get rid of documents like this is to shred them so that they are completely destroyed and cannot fall into the wrong hands when they are out of your sight. Any information, no matter how innocent it may appear to be, could quickly turn into a disaster for your company if it were to become public knowledge. At the very least it would show that your company is not responsible and is not adequately concerned about privacy. You could even be sued by a third party if their private information were to be made public, and you would then need to defend your case in a lawsuit.

Stringent Regulations

Don't underestimate the risk here, especially from a regulatory point of view. New laws have come into place around the world to help protect the privacy rights of both the individual and the corporation, and you will need to comply or face a significant penalty.

Taking Action

Get into the habit of shredding documents as soon as they are no longer needed. Reach out to a document destruction business and ask them about their services now.

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