Secure Document Shredding is More Than Just Best Practice, It’s the Law
Identity theft, the nation’s fastest growing crime, occurs when someone uses your personal identifying information, like your name, social security number, or credit card number without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes. Approximately ten million Americans had their identity stolen in 2008. Proper document shredding is one of the easiest ways to help prevent identity theft. While it used to be best practice, it’s now the law due to growing identity theft crime stats.
According to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 2008 complaint data, six forms of identity theft are most common. These include
o Credit card fraud (20%), where someone acquires your credit card number and uses it to make a purchase;
o Government fraud (15%), which includes tax, social security and driver license fraud;
o Employment fraud (15%) occurs when someone without a valid social security number borrows someone else’s to obtain a job;
o Utilities fraud (13%) occurs when utilities are opened using the name of a child or someone who does not live at the residence;
o Bank fraud (11%), which includes check theft, changing the amount on a check and ATM pass code theft; and
o Loan fraud (4%), when someone applies for a loan in your name.
Every day printed, confidential and personal information is produced and passed on to businesses and strangers. Identity theft continues to rise every year while governments and regulators around the globe continue to introduce legislation to help protect businesses and individuals. Some of the legal efforts to make identity theft more difficult include
Health Insurance Portability and Accessibility Act (HIPAA) puts very strict guidelines on the healthcare industry to protect sensitive patient information. Failure to comply with HIPAA results in heavy fines and potential loss of business.
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) includes provisions to protect consumers’ personal financial information held by financial institutions, which comprises banks, securities firms, insurance companies, and companies providing other types of financial services and products to consumers. The GLBA requires banks to develop privacy notices and provide customers with the option of prohibiting the sharing of their confidential information with outside third parties. On July 1, 2001, the GLBA was amended with the requirement that financial institutions must have a comprehensive, written information security program which includes the proper destruction of
documents.
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) mandates that businesses properly dispose of documents containing consumer information. Businesses are required to take measures to destroy all consumer reports to the point that they will not be reconstructed or reread. Noncompliance of FACTA may result in fines, class action lawsuits and federal and state legal enforcement actions for violation of the law.
In recent years, most states enacted identity theft protection acts as well, which criminalize identity theft and impose obligations on businesses to protect the privacy of consumers’ information.
Federal and state regulations help to ensure consumer and business protection. Proper document shredding is a crucial step in abiding by these laws. Shredding and destroying information on paper used to be considered a best practice. Now it’s the law. Secure document shredding helps prevent identity theft and protects the integrity and liability of your business – saving business’ time, money and their reputation.
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