While your employees are worried about breaking their SO’s hearts this Valentine’s Day, you should be worried about breaking privacy laws. As the latest news about Equifax’s and Yahoo’s security breaches come to light, it’s imperative that every business (large and small) does their due diligence to protect customer’s personal information. Shredding is just one of the many ways a company like yours stays protected against identity theft.
Around Valentine’s Day, the number of candy-grams, greeting cards, and love notes sent around the world are at an all-time high. This isn’t the kind of paper your business needs to worry about shredding. Firstly, letters sent between partners aren’t under the same legislation as your Toronto-based business. PIPEDA, standing for the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Data Act applies to any company that collects, stores, or destroys customer information in the process of their operations. It doesn’t regulate any personal handling of information from individuals.
Secondly, these love-themed messages rarely contain the same kind of information your business uses. The personal information collected by corporations and healthcare professionals act as a key that unlocks the identify of individuals. Name, contact information, Social Insurance Numbers, and financial details are specifics scammers need to falsify documents, open fraudulent accounts, and steal identities.
Any business within Canada that’s shown to reveal this information will face serious fines—even if their mismanagement of documents doesn’t lead to identity theft. Other countries around the world face similar penalties for exposing customer’s personal information, though few are as stringent as the newest GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, safeguarding EU resident’s data.
These are the things that you need to think about as you protect your company and your customers. Reading up on helpful tips for protecting your company information is just the start. You need to outsource your company’s shredding. It’s a quick, affordable, and effective way to eliminate paper documents and electronic data, so there’s no chance of exposing customer information in a breach.
When it comes to paper shredding services Toronto has a number of companies to choose from. It’s your responsibility to find one that meets your quality checks. Not only do they have to fit within your schedule and budget, but they must also provide NAID-certified document destruction. The National Association for Information Destruction is a prestigious institution regulating the standards of document destruction. When a company can show this accreditation, they prove they follow the requirements for complete and utter destruction.
When you stick with paper shredding services Toronto business owners (like you) can trust, there are many benefits. You get to keep your confidential data safe and secure. They also eliminate any time wasted shredding documents in-house. Everybody knows that with a standard commercial paper shredder this process can take an enormous amount of time, making it both impractical and insufficient for your business.
Instead of wasting time shredding paperwork, your employees can continue to perform the tasks they are required to do regularly when your company decides to outsource its data destruction this Valentine’s Day and beyond.
