Residential Paper Shredding Services & Why You Need Them
July 20, 2023
Of the countless things you do to manage your home, from changing your furnace filter to washing the windows, residential paper shredding is probably not one of them. But, it may be one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself, your work and your home.
To be clear, when we say ‘residential paper shredding’, we mean the secure destruction of expired or unnecessary personal and professional documents. In fact, it’s not about shredding paper, it’s really about destroying the information that’s on the paper. And, to ensure that the information is ‘securely’ destroyed, (meaning it is impossible to reconstruct the document after shredding to get the information it contained), the paper must be shredded according to National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) AAA-Certified standards.
But why is it so important to securely destroy your personal and professional documents? The basic reason is, if you don’t shred documents, they can be seen or taken by anyone who visits your home, or who has access to your trash/recycling bins. And it’s what can be done with that information if it falls into the wrong hands that’s the real problem.
The following are just a few reasons why you should securely destroy your paper documents.
Protect Yourself – Avoid Identity Theft
It doesn’t take much for someone to steal your identity. Even with just your name, criminals can use the internet to find out where your work and live. From there, they may be able to get personally identifiable information (PII) that can be used to access bank and credit card accounts – or even to sell your home fraudulently.
Any document with your name and address on it, especially if it contains other information, like a bank account or social insurance number, or medical records, must be securely destroyed to protect yourself against losing control of your identity.
Protect Your Employer or Business – Stay in Compliance with Government and Contractual Obligations
Businesses must remain in compliance with personal information privacy laws, like the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA). Also, many contracts stipulate that you must protect the sensitive information of the parties to the contract. Among other stipulations of the laws and guidelines, businesses must protect the sensitive personal or corporate information of their clients and suppliers. Failure to comply with the regulations can have serious consequences for any business. And the consequences can be far worse if the failure results in the use of the protected information for fraudulent purposes.
Whether you are an employee or a business owner, not keeping customer information secure can be a threat to your job or business operations.
Have Peace of Mind – Every Document Can Pose a Risk
It’s a common mistake to think that only ‘important’ documents, like contracts, financial statements, medical records and legal agreements, must be shredded when no longer needed. The fact is that any piece of paper with certain information on it can be a risk. This can include something like a post-it note on which you write a customer’s credit card number. The only way to protect yourself and/or your company is to securely destroy every piece of paper that contains business or sensitive personal information.
Your Home Shredder is Not NAID AAA Certified
Even if you are aware of the importance of shredding documents and have paper shredders in your home, you may not be completely destroying the information on them. The NAID AAA Certification program only applies to document destruction companies. The program’s requirements relate to the handling, movement and storage of documents as well as their destruction. So, even if you have a paper shredder at home, using it will not meet the NAID AAA Certification guidelines for secure information destruction.
Declutter Your Home – Destroy Unnecessary Documents
Securely destroying expired and unnecessary documents has the bonus benefit of helping you keep your home tidy. In addition to reducing clutter, your home will be better organized and you’ll probably open up some much-needed storage space!
Papersavers offers a variety of secure residential paper shredding services to meet your needs. Whether you have a box of documents or dozens of boxes; and you need shredding services once a week or once a year; we will securely destroy your sensitive corporate and personal information.
We can do so using any one of our certified shredding options:
- On-site Shredding – We will shred your documents immediately in our mobile shredding truck at your home.
- Drop-n-Watch Shredding – Want to see for yourself that your information is destroyed? Deliver your confidential documents to our facility and watch them being shredded.
- Off-Site – We will pick up your documents from your home and shred them at our facility.
If you enjoyed this post, check out our recent article How & Why You Should Recycle Cardboard Properly.
