It’s safe to say that a lot of our day-to-day communication is digital. But whether at your workplace or at home, we still come across or handle a lot of paper documents and records. Of course, much of it can be disposed of with your usual paper recycling, in other words, it doesn’t need confidential shredding. Papers like newspapers, instructions that come with furniture or electronics, or non-confidential printouts and memos. These documents typically don’t have sensitive information that needs protection.
But some types of documents should always be securely disposed of. If your home or business has a lot of sensitive paperwork, using a confidential shredding service like us, Coastline Recycling, is the best way to make sure all that sensitive info remains safe.
What are sensitive documents?
Now you might be wondering what we mean by “sensitive documents”. Simply put, sensitive documents are ones that contain confidential or personal information. This information could be an individuals’ private information or a company’s internal communications, financials, or HR information, to name a few.
In Canada, we have a privacy protection law called the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). Part of adhering to PIPEDA is having compliant disposal methods for certain personal and business information. A document shredding company like Coastline Recycling helps you stay compliant because of our tight loop of confidentiality. We guarantee that your confidential shredding has been handled correctly by offering you a “Certificate of Destruction”.
Six Kinds of Sensitive Documents For Document Shredding
So what types of documents need shredding? Let’s break down sensitive documents into the following six groups. If you or your company have these types of documents, your Gibsons shredding company has a document destruction package that suits your needs:
1. Any paperwork that could be used for identity theft
At a business, documents that contain personal information about an employee, vendor, or customer should be destroyed by a shredding service when you no longer need those records. At home, any of your household members’ personal, medical, or financial records should be shredded if the info isn’t needed or is outdated.
Identity theft and fraud is a huge issue these days — protect your business’ records or your family’s personal information from falling into the wrong hands by using a secure shredding service. Not totally sure if a document is sensitive or not? Better safe than sorry and get it shredded anyway!
Examples of personal information documents to shred include:
- Copies of photo ID
- Credit card info
- Home address information of customers and employees
- Email addresses of customers and vendors
- HR records, vendor or partner contracts
- Proof of identity documents
2. Documents related to banking, finances, and taxes
Whether at home or at the office, printed documents with banking, financial, or tax information are sensitive documents that definitely need shredding. Paper with any financial details — even expired information — is very attractive to identity thieves. At minimum, looking for “shredding services near me” and enlisting the services of a professional shredding company is important for peace-of-mind.
Make sure you include these financial documents in your confidential shredding when you no longer need them:
- Payroll records
- Annual budgets
- Old tax returns and audits
- Bank info like account statements, policies, and contracts
- Void cheques
- Insurance policies
3. Confidential documents about your business
These days, transparency is the name of the game. But it also makes sense to protect the strategies, research, and development you’ve invested in to make your business successful. Your employees, partners, suppliers, and vendors are counting on you to keep these under wraps. This, of course, extends to secure disposal of these documents when needed.
You can trust your business’ operational paperwork to the efficient and safe document destruction process at Coastline Recycling.
Business documents to shred include:
- Research and development documents
- Proprietary information that you don’t want competitors to see
- Product proposals and plans for both current and future projects
- Internal reports, tests
- Exclusive formulas
- Training and operational manuals for employees
- IT manuals and protocols, including cyber security documentation
4. Health and Human Resources Documents
It goes without saying that medical records for yourself, your family, staff, and clients should be handled with the utmost in security. The same goes for HR records like resumes, applications, performance reviews, and disciplinary reports. When you’re ready to dispose of medical info and employee documents, confidential shredding helps ensure everyone’s privacy is protected.
We suggest making sure your staff knows your company’s protocols for disposing of their private information so they feel safe. Plus, you and your employees can pass along the confidence to your clients.
5. Legal Documents and Contracts
When it comes to legal documents and contracts that you store at home or at work, it makes sense that you yourself set up a safe document disposal plan. Our document disposal services make that easy for you! Coastline Recycling supplies the bins, we pick up, transport, shred and bale, and transport to Sechelt for waste management.
But if you have legal documents, contracts, or paperwork filed with other professionals, it might be a good idea to ask them how they store and dispose of their client records. How long do they keep their paper records? Do they shred personal information when it’s time? And if so, do they use a reputable Sunshine Coast document destruction company like Coastline Recycling? This will give you some peace-of-mind knowing that your confidential documents are in trustworthy hands.
6. Insurance, Home Ownership & Lease Agreements, Bills
Bills, insurance policies, home or commercial ownership and lease documents, these should be shredded once you’re ready to get rid of them. This type of paperwork typically contains account numbers, addresses, sometimes even credit card information that should always remain private.
Some documents like this to shred include:
- Old utility bills
- Phone, internet, and cell phone bills and contracts
- Expired passports
- Expired warranties, manuals, and receipts for appliances, electronics, and computers
- Home improvement documents and receipts
Easy Document Shredding on the Sunshine Coast
Legal forms, bank info, medical info or proof of identity documents — now you know that confidential shredding is how you can safely dispose of them. Next step? Engaging your established Sunshine Coast paper shredding service who will handle it all for you!
From Port Mellon to Langdale to Gibsons, Roberts Creek, Sechelt and Pender Harbour, Coastline Recycling is an established, secure document shredding service that will give you peace-of-mind.
Contact us today to schedule your first paper shredding pick up!
