Securing the personal information and valuable data of your business should always be a priority to protect your personal identity and your company’s interests and future plans that can always be a box of gold for identity thieves who can misuse the information. It would be a very unpleasant moment when you find out that there have been unauthorized transactions made on your credit card and you have absolutely no idea who made them.

To avoid such situations, the use of shredders is highly recommended. Shredders mince and chop papers to tiny bits making it completely useless to extract valuable information about a person or a company.

There are mainly two types of shredders. Split cut and cross cut. Split cut shredders destroy papers by slicing them into "noodle-like" ribbons which are approximately 12mm wide. Majority of these shredders use rotating knives to split the document. However these shredders are not completely effective in disposing off sensitive information and a patient criminal or investigator can easily reassemble the strips to reconstruct the original file and extract the desired content. Cross cut shredders which are more popular these days are more efficient in destroying personal information on hardcopies. They mince the paper into tiny paper pieces measuring from 3/8"x 1-1/2" to as small as 8/10 x 4 mm particle-that’s almost the size of dust particles.

Depending on where the shredder is used there are two types-personal and office shredders. Personal shredders are used by private individuals to destroy important personal information like financial documents, bank account statements, confidential documents, etc. They are also used in homes to shred unwanted paper, old shopping receipts, expired tokens and lottery tickets and promotional letters, which you receive by snail mail.

Commercial and office shredders are used by large corporations and businesses including health, government and military organizations. It is very essential that businesses use shredders because competitors would pay millions to get their hands on important documents like internal memos, financial reports and statements of the company, correspondence letters, strategic business plans as well as data backed up on to CD’s and DVD’s. Many cases of corporate espionage occur because of this very reason that unwanted confidential documents weren’t properly destroyed-mostly they were disposed off into dustbins. Even patient data collected by medical facilities and health professionals, particularly therapists who keep records of sessions can be very valuable in the hands of the wrong person.

Another aspect of paper shredders is their capacity to shred documents at a given time. On average shredders take up to seven sheets at once with a working time of ten to twelve minutes before they need to be shutdown so that they don’t overheat. So there is no need for waiting. The last point is important to consider for safety reasons. If the shredder is going to be used at home then children and pets need to be kept away from it. Almost all major shredders have built-in safety mechanisms, for e.g., sensors are present to detect that no hand is present at the entrance of the shredder otherwise it will automatically switch off thereby ensuring everyone’s safety.

The benefits of shredders cannot be outweighed for the simple that people love their privacy and shredders guarantee that by terminating unimportant hardcopies.