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Are You Familiar with FACTA?

 

 

Businesses in the United States are subject to various different legal obligations under both state and federal law. Sometimes it can be hard to keep track of what your business is obligated to abide by, but one piece of legislation that all businesses and individuals in the United States should be familiar with is known as FACTA.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) was introduced in 2003 in an effort to reduce identity theft risk through the proper management of consumer information by businesses and organizations across the United States. Encouraging the creation of the Red Flags Rule for financial institutions, FACTA has made a considerable impact on how businesses manage consumer data, and on identity theft rates.

Under FACTA, consumer information must be properly handled and disposed of upon its lack of necessity. Parties handling sensitive consumer information are required to take “reasonable measures” which ensure the safety of that information. Such measures can include destruction of information through pulverization, burning or shredding of physical documents.

There are several different types of documents that follow under FACTA’s disposal rule. Typically the documents affected consist of anything that contains sensitive individual information. Documents that contain things like;

• Physical addresses
• Phone numbers and email addresses
• Drivers licence / insurance policy numbers
• Social security numbers

All fall under FACTA’s disposal rule. The penalties for anyone who fails to abide by these disposal rules can be hefty as well with state fines going up to $1,500 per violation, and federal fines going up to $2,500 per violation. Some documents you may want to be paying more attention to include;

• Insurance claims
• Employee records
• Check-writing histories
• Consumer reports

So what should you do? A proven method to help businesses across all industries abide by FACTA guidelines is to take advantage of a knowledgeable information destruction service. On top of maintaining a state of the art secure document shredding facility, A1 DATASHRED also offers mobile shredding services (our shredding machine comes to your office,) as well as hard drive shredding.

Our team of information destruction specialists are ready to help your business meet its obligations. As a proud holder of AAA Certification from NAID we know how to make sure your businesses’ information needs remain within the parameters of FACTA’s information handling and disposal guidelines. If you’re business is looking for a partner to trust, contact A1 DATASHRED today.

August 9, 2018