Destruction Services
Destruction Services
Over the past several years, laws have gone into effect governing how information should be discarded. Many of these laws were enacted because of the increased incidents of identity theft and personal information violation crimes. These laws include:
HIPPA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act:
Standards and requirements developed by the Department of Health and Human Services for the maintenance and transmission of health information that identifies individual patients.
GLBA: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act:
Places significant restrictions on the use of customer information by those in the financial industry. Requires companies that engage in financial activities to ensure the security and confidentiality of their customers non-public information, such as, Social Security numbers, Account numbers, Credit Card Numbers, applications, etc.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act:
Makes it a criminal offense to destroy corporate records because of pending investigation.
FACTA (Fact Act): Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act:
Legislation addressing issues such as identity theft, fair and accurate credit reporting and improper disposal of consumer information. This applies to virtually every person and business in the United States that handles consumer information for the purpose of business. Requires the destruction of all consumer information before it is discarded.
These laws require companies to destroy documents that are no longer needed if they contain any personal identifiable infromation such as social security numbers and dates of birth. Specifically, these laws state that companies must take "reasonable measures" to protect against unauthorized access to the information in connection with its disposal. Violations of record destruction policies are subject to massive fines and in some cases imprisonment.
According to the Supreme Court, sifting through disposed material is not illegal. The Court ruled in 1988 that once trash is left for pick up, it becomes public domain. It is estimated that over 10 million individuals throughout the United States are victims of identity theft each year. This is not the only issue that organizations face; they must also protect themselves from trade secret theft, public embarrassment, legal exposure, internal personnel issues as well as exposing patient/personnel medical information. Consumers are also becoming more involved in protecting themselves. More and more clients are demanding that businesses protect and destroy their confidential information before the will agree to do business them.
Document destruction companies are a viable option for companies and corporations that are covered under any or all of these laws. They offer secure, lawful destruction of all information. The document destruction industry is hired by hospitals, banks, insurance companies and other corporate entities needing to dispose of files that have outlived their usefulness or that could compromise customer/patient privacy. They also help protect the environment by saving trees (one ton of recycled paper saves the equivalent of 17 small trees), reducing landfill space, and saving water by producing paper from recycled materials rather than using virgin pulp.
Storage Plus is proud of its corporate partnership with Rocky Mountain Document Destruction (RMDD) for all document destruction services.
RMDD adheres to the employee hiring and screening guidelines set forth by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID).
RMDD and it’s employees shall adhere to the standards of conduct set forth by the Privacy Act of 1974 which provides for the protection of individual privacy and access to records.
All personally identifiable information (PII) is securely contained during transfer from customers’ custody to RMDD’s secure area within it’s facility.
All vehicles used for transfer of clients’ PII have applicable government inspection records for road worthiness on file in addition to lockabable/securable fully enclosed boxes.
PII is always attended by a company employee and secured from unathorized acess while in the custody of RMDD prior to being destroyed.
RMDD utilizes an “AAA” rated late model AMS-4000 paper shredder with a 5/8 inch shred width.
RMDD shall shred the PII at it’s secureed facility within 48 hours and return a Certificate of Destruction to the customer.
Storage Plus along with Rocky Mountain Document Destruction offers the most competitive rates in the industry. For a free quote on a document destruction program tailored to meet your specific needs, please contact us!!!!