In the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas, an inactive company is under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office after improperly disposing documents containing personal information of former applicants. Local resident, David Aguilera Jr. spotted the documents in a dumpster when he was throwing away posters. He claimed that piles of paper and folders were stacked from the middle to the bottom of the container.
“I was making room to put them in there, and when I moved the box a whole bunch of papers fell and I saw a picture ID of a license,” he said. “I grabbed it and there was another one at the bottom and another one.”
The jumbled documents contained copies of people’s driver’s license and Social Security cards attached to job applications. The applications referred to a company called Millennium Solutions, Inc. who apparently sold Time Warner Cable residential services.
Under Sec. 72.004. (b) of Texas’ Business and Commercial Code Title 5, when a business disposes of a business record that contains personal identifying information of a customer of the business, the business shall modify, by shredding, erasing, or other means, the personal identifying information so as to make the information unreadable or undecipherable.
A business that disposes of a business record without complying with Subsection (b) is liable for a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed $500 for each business record. The attorney general may bring an action against the business to:
(1) recover the civil penalty;
(2) obtain any other remedy, including injunctive relief; and
(3) recover costs and reasonable attorney’s fees incurred in bringing the action.
At AccuShred, when we stress the importance of secure document destruction, it isn’t to be taken lightly. While state laws vary on improper data destruction, repercussions will ensue. Our document destruction methods have been carefully developed over the years to ensure security. We have spent the extra money to ensure this small particle size because we feel it gives our customers (and us) the peace of mind knowing that their sensitive material has truly been thoroughly destroyed. Learn more about our document destruction services here.