Regardless of your business’ field of work, it is highly likely that they produce a significant amount of private documents. Such documents could include things like bank details or the personal information of your customers. It is of extreme importance to keep these documents safe, and if they are no longer needed, then they must be disposed of in the correct manner. However, it is important to realise that paper shredding is not only a moral obligation, as failing to do so may lead to legal complications. If that data is then used maliciously, it could cause your business, and potentially other parties, great harm. Here are some of the reasons why you should make sure that sufficient paper shredding measures are taking place at your business:
- To avoid losing company credibility
Besides the legal repercussions, if word gets out that one of the documents in your company’s possession is in the hands of an unauthorised member of the public, then that is not going to look good for your image. People will start to doubt whether you take data protection measures seriously. This will not only harm your customer base but may prevent you from acquiring future investment. This will ultimately harm your profits, which is something you want to avoid.
- It is a moral obligation
Although many people tend to ignore the moral aspect of doing business, it is certainly something that most people should be considering. When it comes to data, you definitely don’t want to leave your customers’ data to malicious activity. How would you feel if your own personal data was not adequately taken care of by someone you’d entrusted with it? I’m sure the answer is “not very happy”. Therefore, treat others as you’d like to be treated yourself, and make sure their data is as secure (or more secure) as you’d keep your data.
- Huge legal fines if you fail to protect data
If data is accessed by an unauthorised member of the public, and word gets out that this happened due to the company not meeting its legal obligation to shred documents, then the company is going to be in trouble. You’ll not only have to pay huge fines to the government for breaching their laws, but you’ll have to pay compensation to those whose data was compromised. This is especially the case if that data was used maliciously.
- Compliance is easy!
It may sound like a pain, but shredding your used documents really isn’t that difficult. It is as simple as shredding all of your secure documents before you decide to dispose of them. Some businesses, however, claim that this distracts them from their usual business activities. If you hire an external company to sort out your shredding needs for you, then that means that there will be even less stress for the business itself. Be sure to check out paper shredding from On Time Shred if you are interested.
