Businesses often deal with documents in their daily operations. Private individuals also have papers accumulated through the years. Bills, forms, information sheets, and flyers are common in houses and offices worldwide.

Over time, these papers often lose their relevance and turn into junk. However, most of them could still contain private and confidential information.

Documents containing sensitive information shouldn’t just be thrown away. They require proper document destruction methods to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

However, not everyone has access to large-scale shredding equipment capable of going through massive piles of papers. In these cases, shredding events are a viable alternative.

What Is a Shredding Event?

A shredding event is often a community-wide affair where people can get their documents shredded by industrial machines. They are usually organized in parking lots or other open spaces.

These community shredding events help individuals and small organizations with data destruction needs. They are particularly helpful for those that do not have the equipment to destroy sensitive documents by themselves.

Local governments could partner with a mobile shredding company to provide the space and equipment necessary for the event. Instead of finding individual shredders or document drop-offs, entire neighbourhoods could have their papers shredded in a couple of hours.

The Benefits of Attending a Shredding Event

There are many misconceptions and myths about paper shredding, but shredding events do a lot of good. Below are some key benefits of attending a shredding event in your community.

Security

Shredding events help make a community safer from data breaches and identity thieves. They make data security accessible, even to those without access to professional shredders in their home or workplace.

These events help people get rid of documents containing the following:

• Full names
• Addresses
• Phone numbers
• Social security numbers, etc.

Convenience

Finding and booking a shredder could be difficult, especially for people with busy schedules. Getting rid of personal documents isn’t a priority for most.

A shredding event makes the document destruction process easier for everyone involved. People can drop by with their documents and finish the job in a few hours or less. They don’t need to handle any bookings or reservations. They just need to show up with what they want to shred.

Peace of Mind

According to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, 48 percent of Canadians are highly concerned about identity theft.

Secure shredding events give people control over destroying their information. They collect their documents and watch them get shredded before their eyes.  

The Dangers of Attending a Shredding Event

Community shredding events are generally safe, especially if you recognize that the organizers are trustworthy. However, it’s still important to consider the privacy and health risks you may encounter at these events.

Leaving Confidential Documents Behind

Shredding events usually allow you to leave your documents behind, especially if you have somewhere else to be. However, doing this may leave your private information at risk.

If you are particularly concerned about your documents, staying and keeping watch would be best. You can also talk to the organizers about your concerns to see what they can do to help.

COVID-19 Risks

Since these events involve the community, you can expect that there will be other people there. Before going, you can check the event details. Find out what precautions the organizers have set to ensure everyone’s health and safety.

Check Out Absolute Destruction Today!

Document shredding is essential to protect the privacy of your home, local business, nonprofit, or community.

Partnering with professional shredding services in London is an excellent idea if you want to organize a shredding event. Aside from protecting your personal information, these events also help you comply with the province’s access and privacy laws.

You can contact Absolute Destruction today for more information and a free quote on different data destruction services.

Aside from paper documents and credit cards, we also destroy storage devices like laptops, computers, and hard drives.

Buying a shredder or waiting for a shredding event in your location requires time, energy, and money. Contact Absolute Destruction for reliable shredding services today!

FAQs on How Safe Are Shredding Events and Should You Attend One

Can you witness the shredding process?

Yes. You can hang around shredding events and request to witness the shredding process of your own documents.

How do you differentiate between on-site and off-site shredding?

On-site shredding means that the mobile shredding trucks go to your premises. Off-site shredding means you need to take your documents to the shredding facility.

How to know if the shredding company is reputable and certified?

You can look into their affiliations, such as the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) or PRISM International. It’s also important to ask whether they provide a certificate of destruction after their services.

The post How Safe Are Shredding Events and Should You Attend One appeared first on Absolute Destruction.

Many companies use data to sell more items and services through advertising. Political organizations and campaign managers have even used data to influence political campaigns.

Even in more mundane, day-to-day applications, data is still critical. Businesses often deal with their employees’ or clients’ personal data for their operations.

Waterloo is currently a hotbed for tech companies and startups. They often deal with a lot of sensitive information that requires proper handling.

Despite advancements in storage technology, there will always come a time when we need to get rid of data. It may be due to storage or budget constraints or plain irrelevance.

Still, we need to handle sensitive information carefully, even during disposal. Here’s what you need to know.

What Is Data & Document Destruction?

Effective data disposal requires proper data and document destruction, preferably done by professionals.

Data destruction aims to make data and documents completely unreadable regardless of format. It is an umbrella term covering many different methods appropriate to specific media. The differences in destruction methods depend on where you store your data.

Data destruction also makes sure that no one can recover the data after the process. This adds another layer of security. If you do it right, the data or documents you wish to destroy will be lost forever, unless you have backup copies.

The process can take two forms: physical or digital/electronic.

For data stored through electronic means, simply deleting your files is not enough. They may be invisible to you, but the device’s hard drive still stores some information.

Data destruction can entail overwriting the current data with random information. You can do this to corrupt the file and deem it irretrievable. In some cases, you can even physically destroy the electronic devices involved. This method leaves no traces in case someone tries to recover information through the hardware.

For data stored in formats like paper, physical destruction is the way to go. The most common physical method is paper shredding. It involves a machine cutting the paper into tiny, almost illegible shreds.

Common Data & Document Destruction Methods

The emergence of different technologies has led to many ways of storing data. With this many storage options, there are also several ways of destroying them.

There is no perfect way to destroy data. After all, written information always leaves a mark. Each destruction method has its strengths and weaknesses. But getting to know each one will help you decide which way best suits your startup’s needs.

Here are a few you may want to consider:

Deleting

When most people want to remove data from a computer, the most logical step is to delete it. If you’re feeling thorough, you might try emptying the recycle bin.

But as we mentioned above, simple deletion is not enough. Even with the extra steps you take, anyone can still recover the files you deleted.

This is because when you delete something, you have only removed the direct link to that particular file. The information making up the data within it still exists somewhere in your hard drive.

It’s a good enough method if you want to free some space. If you want actual data destruction, though, you may want to try something else.

Reformatting

For many people, reformatting a disk is a lot more effective than simple deletion. And it is. It is much harder to recover data from a reformatted device compared to when you simply delete them.

Your computer might look empty, but the data is still in the hard drive. And when you have a skilled computer technician at your disposal, data recovery is an easy task.

Easy data recovery can be good if you’ve changed your mind. But if your goal is data destruction, you might want to find another way. If you plan to donate your device, for example, people might find a way to access your previous files.

Wiping/Overwriting

Data wiping is another popular yet more secure method of data destruction. Like deleting and reformatting, it also does not remove the data from the disk. But what makes it secure?

The process involves completely writing over all of the data in the disk using ones and zeroes. By doing this, the device can no longer read the data. You can go through this process once or any number of times to increase security.

A technician can do this by connecting your device to a hardware bulk-wiping device. Another way to do this is by using a CD or network.

Data wiping also complies with most privacy laws, making it a popular choice for many.

Degaussing

Degaussing involves using powerful magnets to destroy data. The magnets disrupt the magnetic field of an operational electronic medium. Depending on the magnet’s strength, it can destroy the majority of the drive’s data.

This method effectively destroys data, but it does have some disadvantages.

If you want to reuse your device, this is not the way to go. Degaussing completely destroys the hard drive or device and renders it inoperable.

Due to this, it is almost impossible to check if the degausser has sufficiently destroyed the data. You can no longer use the device or the drive, after all. It is still possible to check using an electron microscope, but the process can be costly.

Physical destruction

Physical destruction is pretty straightforward. It’s the practice of physically destroying documents and devices through various methods.

You can do this through incineration, smashing, shredding, among others. No one can recover data from a hard drive smashed into a million pieces. It’s a foolproof method, but it does mean that you can no longer reuse your devices.

There are also some contentions about physical data destruction. One is that it can be pretty expensive to destroy electronics sufficiently. 

Another contention is it doesn’t leave much room for green or recycling practices. If you end up using physical destruction, the pieces will most likely end up in a landfill.

Shredding

Shredding is one method of physical destruction. It involves breaking or cutting devices or cards into tiny pieces.

It is also the most popular destruction method for paper documents. Since paper is a physical data storage material, it also requires physical destruction.

You can use a paper shredder to cut up documents and cards into small strips. If sustainability concerns you, you can rest a bit easier if you only need to destroy paper documents. A lot of recycling facilities readily accept shredded paper.

Reasons Why Tech Startups Need Document Shredding

Waterloo is a hotbed for tech companies and startups at the moment. Companies like Blackberry, Google, Intel, and Electronic Arts have offices in the city.

The nature of their work means they closely deal with research, development, and data. It is safe to assume that they will also need services to help them destroy documents and data.

Here’s why you should avail of data destruction and document shredding in Waterloo:

Protect Confidential Data

Many businesses deal with confidential data. These may be trade secrets, employee information, or clients’ personal information. It would be a massive blunder to leak all this information.

Either way, improper disposal of confidential data can harm your company. It could lead to cases of identity theft or breaches of contract. To avoid data breaches, make sure to practice regular data and document destruction.

Reduce Clutter for Increased Productivity

Studies have proven that a cluttered environment contributes to a cluttered mind. It’s distracting and could slow down our daily routines, affecting productivity.

Physical document storage can eat up a lot of space in the workplace. You could store large amounts of data, but regular cleanup helps things run more smoothly. Electronic clutter also tends to slow down your devices.

Follow the Law

Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) requires all businesses to protect the personal data of their clients.

You can ensure data protection through security measures and regular data destruction. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada highly recommends these practices.

Help the Environment

Many data destruction companies also ensure to recycle any potential byproducts.

Many facilities accept e-waste if you’re planning to dispose of your equipment. If you opt for paper shredding, these are also easily recycled. Recycling extends the lives of these items and avoids adding more waste to landfills.

If you’re looking for document destruction and shredding services in Waterloo, contact Absolute Destruction today!

Secure Document & Data Destruction With Absolute Destruction

Document and data destruction might seem like a complicated process, but it doesn’t have to be.

You can never go wrong with Absolute Destruction’s quality, professional service. With over twenty years of data destruction experience, you know that your data is in good hands.

We know each client and each company is unique, so we tailor our services to meet your needs. Our processes are flexible to maximize efficiency and customer care.

Our commitment is to protect your data while helping minimize your carbon footprint. We recycle all reusable materials after completing our shredding services. Protect your data with Absolute Destruction. Contact us today to know which shredding services best fit your company’s needs. You can email us at info@absolutedestruction.ca or give us a call at  (905) 841-0298 or  (866) 997-3334 (toll-free).

The post Tech Startups in Waterloo Need Data & Document Destruction appeared first on Absolute Destruction.

The toll on public health is incalculable, but the economic damage has been its own parallel disaster, with many businesses shuttering and people out of work. The pandemic has been so all-consuming that it’s hardly necessary to recount stats or anecdotes.

While the pandemic has affected everybody differently, nobody can ignore it. Absolute Destruction has worked for years to keep our customers secure from identity thieves, but this has been another magnitude of risk altogether. 

Thank You

We want to take a moment to thank our customers for all they’ve done to keep everyone in their community safe. Amid all the uncertainty, stress, and fear, you’ve managed to comply with health directives that reduced the spread of this terrible virus.

Thank you!

People can’t know exactly how their safety precautions have positively impacted the community, but there’s no doubt that everyone’s private efforts have saved countless lives. Staying indoors, wearing masks when going out in public is necessary, and handwashing flattened out the curve earlier in the year when the risk of Ontario hospitals becoming overwhelmed was real.

Everyone at Absolute Destruction is so thankful for all you’ve done so far to keep us safe, and we’ll continue taking these measures as well.

A Different Christmas 

Christmas this year will be a double-edged sword: people are understandably eager for the magic and charm of Christmas, but travel restrictions to keep the virus from spreading will prevent large groups from getting together.

Christmas will be smaller this year, but we hope everybody finds the time to relax on their own terms. Some annual traditions may be broken, but take whatever solace and joy you can, however you can get it!

Cook your favourite meals for everyone under your roof, or order your favourite takeout. If you’re tired of Zoom chats, you can still talk to distant friends and loved ones over the phone or write to them via email. Watch Christmas movies, fill your home with seasonal décor. If it’s your thing, pour yourself a stiff glass of egg nog!

Spread the cheer by shipping gifts to people you’ve been unable to visit in person or send a heartfelt hand-written holiday card. You don’t need to spend money to connect with the loved ones in your life during Christmas, and everyone will appreciate hearing from you!

The holidays can be a lonely time for many people for different reasons, even when there isn’t a pandemic going on. If you are feeling down or you’d like to help give your community a boost, there are no doubt local charities you can support. 

It’s been a hard year, but Absolute Destruction enters the holidays thankful for the sacrifices made by front-line workers and medical professionals everywhere. From all of us here, thank you, and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The post Thanks, Everyone, and Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! appeared first on Absolute Destruction.