Determining which documents should be shred can be hard. With a lot of different files that contain all kinds of information, separating documents that need to be kept from those that need to be shred can be daunting. Knowing which documents and files must go will ease the process. Some documents need to be shred after they have served their purpose or after a certain retention period.
Below are some of the documents that need to be shredded by a reputable provider of paper shredding services:
Tax Returns
Tax returns are usually stored for a while for personal and banking records. However, old tax returns must be shredded. They contain your business, personal, and financial information that you don’t want other people to have access to. If you have been holding on to big quantities of old tax returns, go through and shred the expired ones. Store those that you want to keep securely.
Bank Statements
Bank statements are sensitive documents that you want to be shredded. They contain information on your finances and banking details. You should not keep these documents for too long because the longer you keep the and the more they accumulate, the greater the risk of them being taken. Your banks have your records on file so you can always get copies from them if you need to. Thus, you do not have to keep your bank statements for long.
Medical Records
Did you know that some people who commit fraud will use medical records to carry out their shady activities? Usually, it will leave you getting billed for services and prescriptions you did not request. Also, these records will contain your personal information you do not want criminals to find. Make sure to get them shredded in the next shredding schedule with your shredding partner.
Hard Drives and Electronic Storage Devices
Hard drives and other electronic media also require shredding. Do not assume that hard drive wiping and deleting files and data on the hard drive will permanently remove them. Criminals can use data retrieval software to recover deleted information. Destroying these devices physically makes data irretrievable as long as the task is performed by professionals. Mobile shredding companies also perform electronics shredding. They are the only ones you can depend on in terms of complete data security if you have hard drives or other electronic media that you want to get rid of.
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