Managers, Start Your Shredders!
By Nick Infusino, Small Businesses editor, at Law & Entrepreneurship News :
“Recently written rules for the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) will require every employer that employs one or more employees to shred any and all documents that contain information derived from a credit report. (Reported by USA Today, 1/14/05). These provisions will go into effect on June 1, 2005. Penalties for failing to obey the shredding provisions could be severe.
The penalties for failure to observe the shredding rules include: civil liability in which an employee can recover actual damages from his/her employer for all damages incurred from identity theft; statutory damages of up to $1,000 per employee; an employer may open itself to class action liability if a large number of employees are affected; federal fines of up to $2,500 for each violation; and state fines of up to $1,000 per employee.
FACTA was enacted to protect consumer and company privacy.”
