GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Sound practices bring peace of mind

Iron Mountain helps you implement a records disposal program that fully supports your Records Retention Schedule. With a program based on sound legal and operational principles, you can confidently dispose of unneeded records.

• Corporate ownership: Standard destruction policies should be set at the corporate level, rather than the departmental level, and be reviewed by the legal and compliance professionals.
• Good faith: Policies should be carried out in a consistent and routine way across all business units to demonstrate “good faith” in legal matters.
• Employee/customer information: Classify as confidential and securely shred any records that contain personally identifiable information including individuals’ social security numbers, dates of birth, bank account information, PINs, etc.
• Litigation “holds”: Establish procedures to suspend the scheduled destruction of records and email when it becomes clear they may be subject to litigation, audit activity or government investigation.
• Employee accountability: Through training and awareness activities, ensure that employees know that premature destruction of records is prohibited and may result in disciplinary action, dismissal, or civil or criminal liability.
• Unofficial records: Duplicates or drafts of official records should never be retained longer than the official version. Dispose of all copies of all media in all formats.
• Email and instant messages: Migrate messaging records to a digital archive so they can be retained and purged in keeping with your retention schedule.