Hi Nazariah,

It is absolutely a best practice (and may be required by law, depending on
your locale and the records in question) to render confidential
records unreadable when disposing of them according to your retention
schedule.

To your question about drafts, the answer lies in what content is in the
draft.  If it contains content that is confidential, then it should be
destroyed with the same care and in the same manner as anything else that is
confidential.  And in reality, even if the content of the draft isn't
confidential, the fact that it is a draft in and of itself may render it
confidential (it may expose protected development methodologies, thought
processes, etc.).

The same goes for internal communications as those are often considered
confidential materials anyway due to trade secret, intellectual property and
other protections (again, depending on the laws and regulations where you
operate and what the content really is).

To your question about the method of destruction, that will ultimately be a
decision your organization must make by balancing convenience, cost and
risk.  In general, shredding is a good way to render paper-based records
unreadable, however there is large variation in shred based on the machine
used.  Obviously, the smaller the pieces, the more complete the destruction
and the more difficult it would be for someone to reconstruct the document.

If you will not be doing the destruction yourself, you also need to consider
the safety of using a 3rd party to do the shredding for you (how will you
protect confidentiality as it is being transported to a shredding facility?)
and then also consider what happens to the shredded material once it's run
through the machine.  Will it be baled and recycled?  Will it be put in a
landfill?  What risks exist with that and are they risks your organization
is willing to take?

Burning and pulping are obviously the most complete destruction methods for
paper, but may not be feasible, cost effective or necessary.

One last suggestion - you may want to consider placing secure bins in your
offices for employees to deposit material that needs to be shredded.  Where
I work, we don't allow any paper recycle bins - all paper that is no longer
needed is to be shredded.  That takes the choice away from the employees and
provides a much higher liklihood that confidential material will indeed be
destroyed properly.

Hope that helps.  Good luck!

Julie


-- 
Julie J. Colgan, CRM

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