LETTERS

What guarantee that it was shredded?

Posted 5/10/16

To the Editor:

Here’s a caveat that Rhode Islanders would do well to consider: I strongly suggest that it would be unwise to trust the free personal document shredding program administered and …

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LETTERS

What guarantee that it was shredded?

Posted

To the Editor:

Here’s a caveat that Rhode Islanders would do well to consider: I strongly suggest that it would be unwise to trust the free personal document shredding program administered and promoted by the RI Office of the Attorney General and operated by a private shredding company.

 It’s a shame, but the attorney general’s office, which is duty-bound (according to its own website) to protect the public “against victimization, deception, and identity theft,” fails to follow its very own advice.

 The attorney general warns explicitly on the consumer protection page of the website: “Shred all...paperwork that includes personal identifying information before (italics mine) you toss it into the trash.” Permit me to repeat – before you toss it into the trash!

The advice is solid. Preserving and accounting for the chain of custody in the destruction of your personal documents is absolutely elemental in their security.

And yet, the dozens of citizens who queued up at the Pilgrim Senior Center on May 6, entrusted their names, addresses, Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and heaven knows what other private and personal identifying information – all intact – to an unknown truck driver with an unknown background, to be taken (directly or perhaps not) to be shredded (or not) by other unknown persons at some unknown future time.

Be clear on this: The only way to guarantee that your personal papers have been shredded in bulk is to witness their destruction by an on-site mobile shredding service.

To my politely expressed concern, the nice lady on the phone at the attorney general’s office countered: “It’s a free service.” Perhaps other readers can extract some sense from that response. I can’t, though.

Of course, I suppose that Rhode Islanders might derive some small bit of solace from the knowledge that (according to the staffer) we are not being charged for this gross disservice to our personal security.

On behalf of the citizenry and its collective personal security, I wholeheartedly encourage the attorney general to either switch to on-site shredding in this program or post a conspicuous warning to the effect that documents may or may not be delivered into safe hands.

Meanwhile, I’ve opted to cart my cartons back home and I bought my very own little shredding machine. It can only handle about five pages at a time, so it’ll be a long slog getting through my tall mountain of once-important mail. But I don’t really mind all that much, for it’s also providing a riveting retrospective on the business of life for my family’s last 20 years!

James Gershman

Warwick

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