Drawbacks of In-House Shredding

Every day, organizations deal with confidential information, including customer records, HR forms, medical records, and financial documents. It’s no secret that safeguarding these documents is the number one priority of every organization.

That is why companies must get rid of unwanted documents to avoid data beaches. There are numerous reasons businesses tend to shred their confidential documents in-house, with budget being the primary factor. However, companies usually ignore drawbacks associated with in-house shredding.

4 Drawbacks of In-House Shredding

Here are four downsides of in-house shredding:

1. Privacy Protection

Privacy protection is one of the significant downsides organizations come across while shredding their documents in-house. The process of in-house shredding is relatively simple in most companies. Employees are assigned different shredding tasks, for which they are given a specific time to complete.

As straightforward as it may seem, it can cause a stir within organizations at times. This happens because employees are often assigned to shred confidential documents even if they are not entitled to see the contents of those documents. Nonetheless, they are still entrusted with such sensitive documents for hours or even days before their destruction.

2. Non-Compliance

Many business sectors, such as financial service providers, law firms, and healthcare organizations, have a legal obligation to protect sensitive information. They need to adhere to specific rules and regulations set by the law to avoid hefty charges and penalties. These laws include:

  • The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
  • Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA)
  • Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX)

Hiring a professional, certified shredding service provider is one of the best ways to ensure that your documents are destroyed securely as per the law.

3. Inefficient Office Shredders

If you’ve ever used an office shredder at work, you know that it’s a slow process. It is also a time-consuming process – you first need to remove all the paperclips and staples from the documents you intend to shred before you can run it through the shredder.

In addition to that, an office shredder can shred a limited amount of paper at a time, which means you have to empty this device multiple times during the entire shredding process. As a result, you get less time to focus on other important tasks.

4. No Proof of Destruction

Businesses in operated industries need to show proof of their destruction activities to avoid fines and other charges. One of the significant drawbacks of in-house shredding is that it fails to provide you with an audit trail (proof of destruction).

This is where a professional shredding company comes into play. They provide you with a Certificate of Destruction once they’re done with the destruction process. This also comes in handy for compliance purposes while ensuring peace of mind.

The Final Verdict

There are numerous disadvantages of in-house shredding, including lack of privacy protection, inefficient office shredders, and so on. However, many organizations still tend to ignore these drawbacks and rely on in-house shredding for a number of reasons, such as low budget, etc. For peace of mind, and to comply with the law, it’s better to hire a professional shredding company instead of relying on in-house shredding.