Fergie's Tech Blog

Employers must shred personal data

Mindy Fetterman writes in USA Today:

Starting Wednesday, employers must destroy personal information about their employees before they throw it out if they got the information from a credit report.

All employers — even if they have only one worker — are covered by the new regulations, which are part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act passed in December 2003.

The regulations are part of a government effort to crack down on identity theft. The identities of about 7 million Americans were stolen in 2003 and their personal information used to set up credit card or bank accounts, according to two studies. Thieves get the information in a variety of ways, from stealing wallets to online scams to hacking into computer networks.

posted by Fergie @ 6/01/2005 07:49:00 AM