Paper Shredder Information - Legislated Reasons Why You Should Shred

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Legislated Reasons Why You Should Shred

…Protecting the privacy of patient information and financial records is the law!

On May 17, 1988 the United States Supreme Court held that trash left out for pickup is public domain. This means that anyone can pick your trash up and sort through it to see if they can find private paperwork such as bank and credit card statements, social security numbers, sales data, or trade secrets.

The HIPAA of 1996 contains a privacy rule that affects healthcare organizations. Compliance was mandated by April 2003. This Federal Law “establishes standards for many healthcare entities including, but not limited to health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and healthcare providers including hospitals and general practitioners”. These providers are required to “protect the privacy of certain individually identifiable health information”. Basically, this act is stating that any Patient Health Information that contain medical information, medical history, social security numbers, ID numbers, credit card numbers, health insurance or any other personal information, must be made unreadable when discarded. The most convenient and effective way to do this is document shredding.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) affects all financial institutions, including banks, credit unions, securities brokers, real estate appraisers, insurance companies, automobile leasing companies, companies that operate travel agencies in connection with financial services, and any other entity that is “significantly involved in financial activities”. Those affected by this Act need to develop a comprehensive written information security plan and annually disclose to their customer base a detailed disclosure policy that explains how personal confidential information will be used and how they plan to safely discard of it. The GLBA took effect on 11-12-2000; full compliance was mandatory by 07-01-2001.

In the aftermath of 9/11 (September 11, 2001) the government and military decided the current standards they used for shredding needed to be updated. Hence the introduction of new more stringent NSA/CSS requirements for shredding “top secret” documents. As good as the machines were (sometimes referred to as “Level 5”) the manufacturers were forced to redesign their cutting systems to reduce shred size further. The new machines (yes, often called “Level 6”) are just now on the market - compliance was mandated by October, 2003.

You will find the best prices, selection and service on paper shredders that meet or exceed legistlated standards at Factory Express, Inc.