Information is the lifeblood of modern businesses and as such must be protected from gathering straight until disposal.

The first step to building a record management policy is to identify which of your records are confidential of which there are two broad categories: Personal and Corporate.

Confidential personal records contain personally identifiable information about individual customers or employees and includes data such as ID, BIR or NIB numbers, dates of birth, bank account information, passwords, family information etc. This information is confidential and should be shredded to protect individuals’ privacy and to protect your company from liability.

Confidential corporate records contain trade secrets or competitive information such as pricing strategies, client lists, trade secrets or intellectual property, for example. Such records need to be shredded to protect your company’s competitive advantage.

While other company documents can be simply thrown out (even though this also has risks attached), all documents that are classified as confidential should definitely be properly destroyed.