Even before I started my paperless office experiment, I purchased a shredder. The amount of private information on the paper I was throwing out started to concern me when I realized that I had no idea where most of it was going.
The novelty of turning every random scrap of paper kept my normal waste basket empty for the first week. After this fascination wore off I started asking myself “Do I really need to shred this?”
Surprisingly, most of the time I found it was better to shred pretty much anything that came in the mail. Flyers and other mail that gets sent to everyone is spared from shredding, but most of the junk mail goes into the shredder. Here is some of my reasoning for some particular items:
- Fund raising letter from alma mater. I initially put it in the trash, but then dug it out and reduced it to confetti. I have seen some institutions ask you for the name of your college as part of a verification process, so if someone were digging through the trash to locate personal information, there is a chance it could be used to gain access to other private information.
- Envelopes of financial statements. Obviously I filed or shredded the actual statements, but the envelopes, themselves, could give an identity thief a good idea about where to start looking.
- Extended warranty information for my car. Since it identified my vehicle, I figured it could be used pieced together with other information to cause mischief.
Obviously this is being a little on the paranoid side of things, but if you get a decent shredder, the cost of shredding as opposed to trashing a piece of paper is minimal. In fact, it might be less because finely shredded material takes up less space than a can full of trash so you don’t have to empty it as often.
One of the biggest mistakes people make in getting a shredder is buying a machine that is too small for their needs. For me, personally, if I can’t take a credit card offer and reduce the entire thing into bits of paper without even opening the envelope, the shredder isn’t powerful enough. That means shredding all the paper and any fake plastic credit card they sent with the offer. If you have to manually run paper through it one or two sheets at a time, you’ve really messed up your workflow and made it much slower than what you had with a trash can.
I think my chances for identity theft from someone digging through my trash are probably very low, based on where I live. But it is possible that, as identity thieves become more sophisticated, the probability may go up. The less information about me that has gone out through the trash and sits who-knows-where, the better.
Not only is this a great tool for preventing identity theft, it’s also a great tool for productivity in general. By removing all of the excess paper from your workspace there is less clutter that can be very distracting to the eye. It also minimizes the amount of space paper takes up in the recycling box which can be a problem if you recycle a lot of paper!
Also, you should shred receipts from any place you have a rewards or savings card (Such as Best Buy, Smith’s Grocery, Blockbuster, etc.)
That number points to you and your buying habits, and the number is printed on the bottom of your receipt!
Something else to consider in regards to identify theft is the people search databases that are free to access on the internet. A friend of mine has just started a web service called UnlistAssist.com that takes you off all 40 of those lists.
I didn’t think it was a big deal, until he was able to tell me all the places I had ever lived, all of my family members, their ages, and even a consumer buying profile, yikes!
Anyways, this reduces your junk mail a bunch and realy helps increase your personal privacy. Check it out! (oh, and I am on my way to get the shredder!)
On topic………….
I also have a shredder, and it does feel great to shred. However, it is my wife who has to remind me. Unfortunately, I have a habit of letting the “junk” pile pile up.
Off topic…….
I believe that by just being a part of “Priscilla Palmer’s Personal Development list” suggests that each of us post this list. You like me (Killeris at “Attitude, the Ultimate Power”) are on this list. If you have already posted it, THANK YOU. If you have not posted it, I am officially putting out a challenge that you add additional sites that fit the theme and post the entire list. This is my opinion only. If you disagree I respectfully understand. If you do agree with me this list can be found at: http://mondaymorningpower.blogspot.com/2007/09/personal-development-list-challenge.html
@Mel – I saw the list awhile back. I haven’t come up with an idea to contribute to it in a way that would add any value for my readers. If you are looking for other productivity oriented sites, please checkout the interview series I did awhile back.
Ok- but just one thing that I learned about the shredding. It’s environmental. If you have shredder that cross cuts, it can’t be recycled. In my city (Seattle) they said the cross cut paper can only be used for yard waste. The shredder that makes the long strings is ok and, for some reason, the strips are ok to put through the recycling process. Since I found this out, I only shred the paper with private info and put the rest to recycle in it’s original form.
@Michele – That is interesting. I hadn’t heard that well shredded paper couldn’t be recycled. I’m curious how large shredding companies handle that because I think many of them recycle.
Manual way: Large brown ‘Food Waste Bag” I keep right beside my desk. Most things just need a rip or two; others lots of rips into tiny bits. When bag is full, it’s dumped and contents scattered in apartment building’s huge recycling container. I don’t deal with much sensitive or confidential material of course of type requiring actual shredding. These bags about 22″ high, packs of 5 at home hardware and many other places, meant for composting. (I keep another in kitchen for all the packaging that comes with food.)
Nancy
It is really important to pay attention to the documents you throw away. Even if you think that a particular document couldn’t be used to steal your identity or to obtain information about you, it should be shredded if it has any form of slightly personal information on it. I recently came across a good article about document security. It has a long list of documents that you should shred.
document security
@Michelle Just a note about not using a cross-cut shredder, it makes it way easier for potential identity thieves to tape the information back together. It happened to a friend of mine. Petition your city/state recycling handler to handle this recycling component as well. It will take a while, but you might start a new movement in your area.