Shredding is a good idea. It helps protect important information. In many cases that good idea is encouraged by legal regulations. Many different governments and types of businesses are required to protect information and shredding is one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to do that.

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) passed a regulation called The Disposal Rule mandating that certain types of information be protected. The methods are flexible, but the businesses required to do so cover a wide arena.

Mortgage brokers maintain confidential financial records. Doctor and attorneys keep private data about a wide range of their patients’ and clients’ personal information and actions. Debt collectors, too, retain data that is supposed to be kept secret. Even landlords, auto dealers and a host of other businesses large and small collect information that is expected to be kept away from prying eyes.

Looking at the list of businesses it’s easy to see what type of information needs to be protected.

Details about bank account numbers and balances are available not just to banks themselves. Auto dealers maintain that information when you borrow money through them to buy a car. Landlords use that information to make decisions about whether and to whom to rent. Private investigators often obtain such information in the course of working a case.

But the rule doesn’t only cover brick and mortar businesses, or even extend just to Internet-based businesses. If you hire domestic help - a nanny, a gardener, a handyman or other - you may have access to a Social Security number, background data and other personal information. As an employer, you are required to make reasonable efforts to keep that information confidential.

That means that any employment application that contains such data has to be kept secured and disposed of properly when it’s no longer needed. It means even if you do no more than write the information onto a piece of notebook paper, you need to keep that paper locked away. Then when it’s obsolete because of projects completed, employment terminated and the like, it should be disposed of so that no unauthorized use is likely.

Shredding is one of the best ways to accomplish those goals. To protect the information, to make it unreadable by unauthorized prying eyes. That makes it easy to do what you should be doing anyway, and to comply with the law that requires you to do it.

It only takes a few minutes to keep that data protected. Simple to use, low-cost shredders can quickly make any regular document or paper unreadable with little effort. Some shredders are so thorough it would take far more effort than it’s worth for criminals to piece it back together. Like a well-protected home in the face of a burglar, they’ll simply move on to an easier target.

Beefier units are available that can even shred CDs, DVDs and the like. A good magnet-based device can help erase an obsolete hard drive to the point of unrecoverability.

Follow good practices, follow the law and the data in your hands will stay out of the wrong ones.

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