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Have You Received Your Certificate of Destruction? Don’t Leave Without One

Any professional shredding service that stands behind its work and is committed to offering solutions that benefit the customer, will supply their client with a Certificate of Destruction following a shredding job.  What is this exactly? Perhaps you’ve never paid much attention to whether you received this document, or maybe you thought this was a standard receipt? In any case, it is important to understand the significance behind this document to protect yourself from unwanted fines or the risk of bad publicity. Failure to understand the importance of this document could be a costly mistake for your business.

So, what does this document represent? A Certificate of Destruction is typically given to the client by a shredding company following the completion of a shredding service. It serves as a guarantee that all paperwork has been shred to specification, and that the company stands behind the quality and security of its work. Usually included in this Certificate is the date of the job, the name of the driver or machine operator, and the name of any witnesses who watched the shredding take place (particularly the case if the shredding was carried out on-site.)

 

Not receiving a Certificate of Destruction should raise some red flags. For starters, it doesn’t communicate that the service provider necessarily guarantees its professional work. Certificates of Destruction are always issued among professional document shredders practicing the highest level of industry standards, and anyone who doesn’t provide one is out of the norm.

 

Secondly, should information breach occur involving your business and/or client, or if there is accusation of data mismanagement (perhaps under legislation’s such as FACTA and HIPAA,) there is nothing for the client to stand behind that guarantees all security efforts were in place during the destruction process. While it is unlikely that a document destruction company won’t shred your documents properly, mistakes happen and there is always room for unfortunate error to take place. The Certificate gives clients a means to stand behind, shifting accountability to the document shredding company. This may be the biggest reason that as a customer, you should never settle for a company that fails to issue you this document.

 

Legislation’s like FACTA and HIPAA outline how sensitive documents should be managed and disposed of legally so that you are not held liable should information be stolen or misused. Potentially sensitive information must be protected while in storage and through until disposal to remain compliance with such laws.

 

• For healthcare businesses, HIPAA is a critical piece of legislation to keep in mind concerning all aspects of health procedures and day to day processes.

 

• Most businesses should also be aware of what FACTA means and how such policies pertain to their business processes. Particularly this legislation is in place to govern the management of consumer information, with the goal of preventing identity theft and consumer fraud.

 

If you are researching reliable shredding services in the Boston region that will stand behind their work, or your current provider isn’t supplying you with a Certificate of Destruction and you are looking to change companies because of it,  A1 DATASHRED is your trusted source!  You may choose from onsite or offsite document shredding, and it is up to you how often or how little you wish to use our service. We won’t tie you in to long-term contracts. Need regular shredding services? We will be there! Only require a one-time purge job? We will get it done just as efficiently! We’ll work with you to determine your unique needs, deciding on a shredding option that is most suited to YOU.

 

Get in touch for additional information on our convenient shredding services.

 

Call 1-888-95-SHRED

December 21, 2018