Addressing Flow-Control Legislation Shows NAID's True Value

As I look down my to-do list, it is interesting to think how it has changed over the years. Not that the number of items has changed much; it was always long. A decade ago, items on the list might have been “arrange auditor for Dallas certification” or “write check for payables.” Now there are items such as “write NAID submission to proposed breach notification” or “work on joint project with Canadian privacy commissioner.”

Don’t get me wrong; not all to-do list items are so high level. I still have more than my share of things like “conduct employee review” or “review aging balances.” The point is that NAID now finds itself as a recognized force in the overall data protection and privacy world. Policymakers from New Zealand to Poland now know what NAID is and that it is a credible source for anything to do with proper data destruction.

I often worry that members do not see their support of NAID as a means to such ends. I am sure that many support NAID for the credibility it lends to their organizations, which is all well and good. But I hasten to remind them that it is NAID’s mission-driven focus that is the real reason for any success the organization has experienced.

A recent example explains this best. NAID was approached by attorneys representing a company that was fighting flow-control legislation in Rockland County, N.Y., which threatened the ability of secure destruction services to operate there. It was obvious to the NAID board that this rule not only threatened those providing services in Rockland County but, left unchallenged, could spread across the country. As a result, NAID dedicated considerable economic resources as well as its knowledge of the industry and data protection to overturning the legislation. Had NAID not been there to respond, the industry would have been left defenseless.

At this point, no organization serving the secure destruction industry had the resources, the ownership structure, the will or the mission-driven perspective to defend members’ interests. That is why it is important to support NAID. It is important to acknowledge the immediate benefits of membership, but it is just as important to remember why we need NAID to be the voice of the industry.

Bob Johnson is CEO of the National Association for Information Destruction. He can be reached at rjohnson@naidonline.org.