3 Reasons Why You Should Consider Shredding Your Paper Shredder

If you are like most people, you probably take some measures to ensure your personal information and identity are secure. Maybe you change your internet passwords frequently. You may be careful not to share your credit card numbers or social security number over the phone unless you share them with a verified recipient. Perhaps you are very selective about what you share online via social media or some other medium. When you are at home sorting through your mail, conceivably, you don’t simply throw away any documents or other papers that contain your personal information. You likely have a paper shredder in your home to handle that job.

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Is using a personal paper shredder the best way to destroy mail, tax documents, or any other papers that contain your personal, sensitive information? It is not.
 
Here are three reasons why you should consider dumping your personal paper shredder in favor of services provided by Rocky Mountain Document Destruction.

1. Unshredder

Unshredder is a software program often used by investigators who need to reconstruct evidence from shredded documents. While its intent is not nefarious, Unshredder is a software program that is wreaking havoc on private citizens. Identity thieves use Unshredder on a personal computer to quickly reconstruct shredded documents – documents that are easily obtained from your home waste or recycle bin. Take a moment to think about how you disposed of your last in-home shredding job. It is very likely that you shredded all of your personal documents into a trash bag, then sealed that trash bag up before taking it to the driveway in your waste or recycle bin. If you did this, you just handed an identity thief your personal information on a silver platter! This identity thief could quickly grab your shredded documents, run them through Unshredder, then assume your identity to make purchases online, apply for credit cards, or something much, much worse. Instead of using a personal shredder in your home, opening you to the risk of having your identity stolen, rely on the professionals at Rocky Mountain Document destruction. If you live in or near Salt Lake City, Utah, you can regularly take your sensitive documents to one of our convenient drop-off locations. There, a document destruction professional will ensure your personal information is permanently destroyed, and leave you knowing your information is safe and out of the hands of would-be identity thieves.

2. No chain of custody

What happens to your private information and other sensitive documents when you shred them and place them in the waste or recycle bin at your home? You probably don’t know. Not knowing the answer to this question is a perfect reason not to use a personal paper shredder. Like how a chain of custody operates in a legal setting, the chain of custody for your personal, private information is critical. You should never be unaware of where your personal information exists. When your personal information leaves your possession, it is available to anyone to claim as their own. At Rocky Mountain Document Destruction in Salt Lake City, Utah, we employ background-checked, drug-tested individuals, and specifically train them to maintain a safe and secure chain of custody for your private, sensitive information. The papers and documents that contain your personal information never leave your sight as our professional paper shredders deposit it into our mobile shredding truck. You can stay and watch as our mobile shredding truck safely and permanently destroys your documents. Once you have verified destruction, you receive a certificate of destruction, and the shredded materials travel inside our secure shredding truck to a Rocky Mountain Recycling center. There, it is baled with thousands of pounds of shredded paper and recycled into new paper.

3. Clutter

Despite living in a world where much of our lives exist on computers or other digital platforms, there is still no shortage of papers and other physical documents that contain our personal, sensitive information. Whether it’s credit card applications, bank statements, mortgage documents, or tax forms, our private information lives on paper. Since we are aware of identity thieves who would attempt to steal our identity, we often allow for mail and other sensitive documents to pile up in our homes or offices until we can get around to shredding those documents. Typically, this creates massive amounts of clutter as our sensitive documents stack up in “shred-it-later” piles. Then, when we finally get around to shredding our personal documents, we end up with an enormous amount of shredded material, creating even more clutter. At Rocky Mountain Document Destruction, we can solve this problem for you. Whether you use our safe and secure drop-off location in Salt Lake City, Utah, or have a regularly scheduled pick-up and your home or office, you can rest assured that Rocky Mountain Document Destruction is there to help sure your home or office don’t get overrun with clutter.