The analogy of old records being like toxic waste is was a great one in Williamsburg, VA. Old personnel files were discovered in the trash. The building owner said they belonged to the tenant, Warrior Xpress. Warrior Xpress was purchased by Celadon Trucking. Celadon said they never took possession of the files. The people left high and dry were those whose information was exposed. [story of the files]

I bet if there was an aggressive district attorney they would be able to find the legal owners.

We have often warned that information left in the dumpster can lead to identity theft. In Memphis they have arrested Ashley Johnson for just that.

It is alleged that Ashley was looking for boxes to move when she found old job applications from McAlister's Restaurant. She used the information to open fraudulent credit accounts at stores around the city. To get the cash she would return merchandise purchased with the fraudulent accounts and put the balance on gift cards. The gift cards were then sold for cash.

Never put your social security number on a job application. They only need it once you are hired. And if you accept job applications please do the right thing and shred them.

"We don't have to comply with FACTA," is the policy of Key Management in Wichita. Or at least that is what their actions indicate.

Key Management is the company that operates Madison Park Apartments. They recently threw all of their past rental applications into the dumpster. This is a violation of the FACTA Disposal Rule. When asked about it an employee said the documents didn't belong to the company. A strange answer when their letterhead was throughout the boxes.

With the increased enforcement of privacy laws, Key Management might want to be less cavalier about their customers' information.

After employees of the Ohio Ohio Bureau Of Motor Vehicles (BMV) had an identity theft ring running in their offices the local news wanted to know if they had improved security. In short, no. They looked in the dumpsters of 24 offices and found 10 had personal information including names, addresses, and social security numbers.

The only solution to prevent employees from throwing personal information into the trash is to make shredding as easy as throwing away. They is with convenient shredding bins a and a service that can guarantee the shredding is done.