subject: Reduction Of Corporate Liability Through Documentation Destruction [print this page] When you're trying to find ways to reduce corporate liability, one method that is always going to be suggested to you is the implementation of a strong and thorough document destruction policy. Any records management Philadelphia company that you hire to help you to manage your paperwork is going to advise you similarly. Many people have a negative attachment to the image of companies shredding documentation, but the truth is this is a very regular part of how large companies do business. A company that doesn't shred many kinds of documents at the appropriate time is not only leaving themselves open to certain private liabilities, they are sometimes in violation of established law as well.
Destroying documents in order to reduce corporate liability is mostly related to privacy. We have many different types of privacy laws in this country which establish when information belongs to a private citizen. This means that even if someone else happens to be in possession of that information it does not belong to them. Therefore, if they leaked that information in such a manner that it could cause harm to, or without the permission of, the person who owns that information, they could be held liable.
For many corporations, the obtaining of information which belongs to their customers is a pretty standard part of business. They need to get payment information, shipping information, and depending on the line of work they are in sometimes even much more private information. When they are done dealing with that customer, many companies choose to destroy any documents containing their information in order to reduce their liability.
This also extends to employees, not just customers. When most companies hire a person today, they run at least two checks on them. These are normally a background or criminal records check, and a credit check. In both of these situations, they are going to obtain information which belongs to their prospective employee. In order to protect their privacy as they are required to by law, companies will shred these documents after they have verified their contents.
In some industries the law even outright demands that certain types of documents get shredded. The medical industry is the best example of this, as HIPAA creates a requirement that most types of patient documents be destroyed when they are no longer needed. Obviously, when a specific law is created for that purpose, liability would be associated with not shredding those types of documents.
by: Paul Atkins
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