What kinds of St. Petersburg businesses need professional shredding service?

Professional shredding and data destruction services help keep many St. Petersburg business secure and safe and help retain customer privacy. But they’re a kind of business that’s not usually talked about, which makes some businesses wonder whether they need them or not.

We believe every St. Petersburg business, large or small, stands to gain something from a professional shredding service. Here are a few companies and situations that need them.

Healthcare companies and providers. Medical organizations house a huge amount of private patient information, much of it incredibly personal and sensitive. That’s why the healthcare industry is especially singled out by consumer protection watchdogs and legislation. The HIPAA Privacy Rule was established to ensure that medical businesses take every measure possible to protect their patients’ information. It covers both paper and digital media destruction in great detail and requires health associations to maintain a consistent shredding policy to keep compliance and remain in business.

Healthcare companies comprise a huge part of professional shredders’ business, so they’re very familiar with the exacting standards of HIPAA regulations. A shredding company is invaluable in keeping medical organizations in good standing.

Financial companies. Like medical businesses, companies that manage or store information about financial interests are also subject to regulations about data destruction. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) protects customer privacy in credit card transactions, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act sets up standards for best practices in corporate accounting.

Both these legislative acts establish a maximum time a business can retain customer information, and mandate certain procedures for proper destruction of data. Professional shredders also know these laws in extensive detail, and routinely keep their clients in line with regulations.

Small companies with limited storage capacity. Office space comes at a premium for small businesses. Piles of old documents and media can overtake an office’s workable space in a hurry. Not only does this restrict an office’s organizational skills — documents that lie around because there’s nowhere to put them may contain a wealth of unsecured data for anyone to see. Professional shredders can take care of documents you don’t need and free up space. Mobile shredders can do so on-site.

Companies that shred documents themselves. In-house shredding is materially risky and doesn’t even save businesses that much money. Consumer-grade shredders leave strips of paper intact, so they can be easily reassembled by someone looking to exploit them. In-house shredding also saps your employees’ time, office productivity, maintenance costs, and equipment replacement budget. Professional shredders are a more practical, secure solution, and far more cost-effective than doing it yourself.

Complete St. Petersburg shredding services

ShredQuick helps hundreds of St. Petersburg businesses gain security, safety, and compliance in their data privacy practices. We can help yours too. Contact us to find out more.