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Do you keep the document carton “just in case”?

Have you ever thought about what is stored in these company cartons that are sent to the warehouse for storage?

If your answer to the second question is “No”, then there may be a problem. Crown Records Management has been storing documents for clients for many years. Even in this information-led era, Crown Records still manages millions of cartons all over the world. For many companies, data storage is still a major demand, and this is unlikely to change; but with the continuous development of information management and data protection, these cartons cannot be ignored.

According to the General Data Protection Regulation, unopened storage cartons filled with old files may pose a threat.

The General Data Protection Regulation has come into effect, ushering in a new era, allowing citizens to exercise greater rights over their personal data. They have the right to request editing, deletion or transfer of data-and there will be strict time limits on the speed of processing requests. In addition, first there will be stricter guidelines on what information can be stored. Companies need to obtain explicit permission from individuals to collect, store and process their data. If the information is improperly managed or used, you may face huge fines. To be fair, unless you have been living in a place that has been disconnected from the outside world, you will definitely notice that the General Data Protection Regulation has come into effect, and it will have a significant impact. However, many people do not realize that the new regulations apply not only to digital data, but also to physical paper documents. This means that carton boxes full of documents are kept when they are not needed, especially when you don’t know what they contain. This can be a time bomb. It can cost companies a lot of money, and in the worst case, they can be fined.

So how serious is this problem?

Due to the coexistence of outsourcing management projects and “in-house” storage facilities, it is difficult to obtain accurate information on the cartons of affected documents across the country. There are also some companies that keep the documents on their own, and some moving companies also provide document storage services. Gabor alone has stored millions of boxes of documents, and it is estimated that about 15% of the documents have either passed the destruction date or have been stored for more than 10 years but have never been used. Of course, many cartons need to be retained for legal and regulatory reasons, while other cartons contain information that may be useful in the future. However, many people store documents in cartons “just in case,” or because they don’t know what information they contain, and they don’t have the time or money to sort them out, so problems keep accumulating. Some items were preserved, all for fear that the future would suddenly become useful miraculously. According to the “General Data Protection Regulation”, companies urgently need to know the content of the data they store, where it is stored, and how the data is used. Companies that know this information are more likely to thrive because the public has a better understanding and familiarity with the relevant laws; and those companies that ignore these regulations, the data time bomb is ticking!

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