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California Document Shredding Laws
California has laws some of the strictest laws in place designed to protect the privacy of information about its residents.
Many of these laws can be found in California Civil Code 1798.80-1798.84.
The list of the laws can be found on the ca.gov website.
Here we've highlighted and outline a few important parts of the law.
California law is designed to protect the information about individuals:
1798.81.5. (a)
It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that personal information about California residents is protected. To that end, the purpose of this section is to encourage businesses that own or license personal information about Californians to provide reasonable security for that information.
This information includes:
"Personal information" means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is capable of being associated with, a particular individual, including, but not limited to, his or her name, signature, social security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver's license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information.
These laws require businesses in California to:
1798.81.
A business shall take all reasonable steps to destroy, or arrange for the destruction of a customer's records within its custody or control containing personal information which is no longer to be retained by the business by (1) shredding, (2) erasing, or (3) otherwise modifying the personal information in those records to make it unreadable or undecipherable through any means.
1798.81.5. (B)
A business that owns or licenses personal information about a California resident shall implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information, to protect the personal information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.
1798.83. (B)
Add to the home page of its Web site a link either to a page titled "Your Privacy Rights" or add the words "Your Privacy Rights" to the home page's link to the business's privacy policy.
Some of the types of information that should be protected are:
Name and address.
Electronic mail address.
Age or date of birth.
Names of children.
Electronic mail or other addresses of children.
Number of children.
The age or gender of children.
Height.
Weight.
Race.
Religion.
Occupation.
Telephone number.
Education.
Political party affiliation.
Medical condition.
Drugs, therapies, or medical products or equipment used.
(The kind of product the customer purchased, leased, or
rented.
Real property purchased, leased, or rented.
The kind of service provided.
Social security number.
Bank account number.
Credit card number.
Debit card number.
Bank or investment account, debit card, or credit card balance.
Payment history.
(Information pertaining to the customer's creditworthiness,assets, income, or liabilities.
1798.84. (b)
Any customer injured by a violation of this title may institute a civil action to recover damages.
Definitions
1798.80. The following definitions apply to this title:
(a) "Business" means a sole proprietorship, partnership,
corporation, association, or other group, however organized and
whether or not organized to operate at a profit, including a
financial institution organized, chartered, or holding a license or
authorization certificate under the law of this state, any other
state, the United States, or of any other country, or the parent or
the subsidiary of a financial institution. The term includes an
entity that destroys records.
(b) "Records" means any material, regardless of the physical form,
on which information is recorded or preserved by any means,
including in written or spoken words, graphically depicted, printed,
or electromagnetically transmitted. "Records" does not include
publicly available directories containing information an individual
has voluntarily consented to have publicly disseminated or listed,
such as name, address, or telephone number.
(c) "Customer" means an individual who provides personal
information to a business for the purpose of purchasing or leasing a
product or obtaining a service from the business.
(d) "Individual" means a natural person.
(e) "Personal information" means any information that identifies,
relates to, describes, or is capable of being associated with, a
particular individual, including, but not limited to, his or her
name, signature, social security number, physical characteristics or
description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver's
license or state identification card number, insurance policy number,
education, employment, employment history, bank account number,
credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial
information.
You can find the complete text of these laws on the ca.gov website at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=civ&group=01001-02000&file=1798.80-1798.84
Other Laws Which Maybe Useful
California's waste reduction and recycling laws (AB939), because we recycle your shredded paper.
California's waste reduction and recycling laws (AB939)
California v Greenwood
In this landmark case in 1988, the Supreme Court ruled that trash is not private and that trash-picking (i.e. Dumpster Diving) is legal. The Court ruled “it is common knowledge that plastic garbage bags left along a public street are readily accessible to animals, children, scavengers, snoops, and other members of the public." Once trash is picked up, it’s public domain…with no exception of privacy or ownership. If you dispose of your files in a public landfill and they are recovered you could be held liable.
So, what do you do? And how do you do it? If you live in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, go to AnnualCreditReport.com, give them the info they request, and as Emiril says, 'Bam' you'll have it within 3-4 days via mail or within secondly if by e-mail.
Business Resource Efficiency & Waste Reduction http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/BizWaste/
Business Assistance: bzassist@ciwmb.ca.gov (916) 341-6363