| Without A Trace™ Document Destruction, a member of the National Association for Information Destruction, is a professional service provider. |
Privacy protection is becoming a matter of law. Indeed, today’s businesses are required by federal laws—and increasingly by state and local mandates—to protect certain types of information. Secure, on-site document destruction allows you to be compliant with these laws.
At the federal level, three important laws require specific safeguards to ensure confidentiality.
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Gramm Leach Bliley Act, also known as the Financial Modernization Act of 1999
- The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA)
All three laws provide for stiff penalties for companies found to be in violation.
STATE OF MAINE ENACTS ID THEFT LAW
The Maine legislature has enacted a bill designed to facilitate the process of cleaning up the credit reports of identity theft victims.
The bill was sponsored by Maine Rep. Carol Grose (D-Woolwich) and signed into law March 16 th, 2006 by Gov. John Baldacci.
The bill, titled “An Act to Accommodate Victims of Identity Theft” has been referred to as an integral part of Maine’s identity theft laws and will clarify that information on a credit report resulting from identity theft which qualifies as “inaccurate” data.
“Identity theft victims often have trouble fixing their credit because information relating to the incidents is described as negative, rather than inaccurate”, Grose says. The new law is designed to eliminate the obstacles that victims of identity theft have to jump through to restore their good credit.
Of course the best situation is to avoid identity theft by shredding all your confidential documents and taking other measures to protect that data which has your confidential information on it. Businesses need to contract with a professional shredder to shred all data which contains their customer or patient information.
