In modern business, a lot of data is being generated and as a business owner, you need to consider the safety of this information. Most of this information is sensitive and if it falls into the wrong hands, the repercussions can be devastating. While electronic data storage is in trend, most of this data is in document form.
To protect your customers and employees, you need to hire a document shredding company to guarantee such information is safe. These professionals help avert identity theft and you will also be complying with the law. From tax returns, employment records, bank statements to credit card details, all these papers should be shredded to avoid company losses.
While this might appear like any other ordinary day-to-day operation, there are some interesting facts that make it unique. Take a look at the following:
1. The History of the Shredder
That sleek-looking machine in your office, in fact dates back to the 1900s when Abbot Augusts Lowe patented the design. Unfortunately, the he never lived to reap the fruits of this ingenious invention and no mass production was started then.
2. A Nazi Connection
When Hitler was about to come to power, the Nazi police were looking for any seditious material with propaganda that propagated any other ideas. This is when German engineer Adolf Ehinger invented another shredder to personally shred thousands of anti-Nazi propaganda that could have gotten him arrested.
3. The Watergate Scandal Connection
When an American president Richard Nixon started taking heat over the Watergate scandal, there was a concerted effort to shred as much evidence as possible and this became the main talking point of the scandal. Of course, the cover-up never worked and Nixon had to resign.
4. Piecing Together Shredded Documents
Most early shredders assumed no one would take the time to piece together all the strips of paper, but in the takeover of the American embassy in 1979, the Iranian revolutionaries changed all this. Information from the American embassy in Tehran was painstakingly pieced together for months and the documents provided damming information. This changed the industry completely by adoption of cross-cut shredders to avoid such blunders.
5. Your Trash is Public Property
The Supreme Court’s decision in California v. Greenwood in 1988 changed how people viewed this piece of equipment. The need to keep information safe even when in the trash bin forced homeowners to start purchasing these machines to protect against identity theft and other breaches.
