NAID Briefing

NAID Continues Emphasis on Compliance

Destruction firms must offer their clients assistance with regulatory compliance.

couple years ago, NAID (National Association for Information Destruction) learned that less than 30 percent of organizations had the information protection policies required by law. We also learned that those companies that had policies, though the minority, were more than twice as likely to outsource.

From these facts, we arrived at two conclusions: First, when organizations take a hard look at their destruction needs, they almost always outsource. Second, the best way to encourage outsourcing is to help the other 70 percent of organizations develop written destruction policies.

About a year and a half ago, NAID released its Information Destruction Compliance Toolkit (CTK). Since then more than 400 NAID members have taken the one-hour orientation required to obtain the CTK. However, field use of the CTK has been considerably slower than originally anticipated.

Regulators are serious about the requirement to have written policies in place, so much so they now have a law for that purpose: Red Flags Rule.

Destruction companies who dismiss the need to integrate a plan to help their customers become compliant with this regulation could find themselves missing a great opportunity. Driving this message home will continue to be one of the NAID’s primary initiatives. Not because it is in NAID’s best interest, but because it is in the best interest of the industry.