Shredder for under $100 - Privacy Protection

SaberX on 06/03/2016 - 20:55

Hi all,

Just been reading about 'privacy' protection and shredding (in part spurred on by the recent forum post about the $500 fine from council and the OP's details being picked up by the council ranger across the street).

It's recommended to shred your documents for identity protection? Usually I just rip out the middle part of my names, part of my account details numbers, signatures, HIN #'s for shares statements etc. BUt i have been reading that we should be shredding even credit offers and other harmelss advertorials? Is that true? Even the magazines that come monthly from subscriptions - shredding the address page (i don't know why? As it's just your name and address which they would know from your bin location anyway??)

Anyway - basically wondering as it's just me and my parents, we just want something for home use. We won't be shredding 100 pages at once, just the odd few pages or a couple of pages if for efficiency. Maybe a credit card too (if they can handle that). But basically can anyone recommend a decent shredder for under $100, the less we spend on it the better (while avoiding crappy, cheap quality ones).

There's a few under $100 at officeworks - have anyone had any experience?

http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/c/technology/…

Any other ozb deals or places to point out and recommend would be great? Seems we shoudl get a 'cross cut' shredder and not strip? Some say confetti or diamond but I haven't seen these advertised? Is that true and I should avoid the $20, 30 ones you can pickup from big w, dick smith and the like in the past?

What are your shredding "musts" for identitiy protection, tips and tricks?

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • nocure on 06/03/2016 - 20:59

    http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/keji-5-shee…

    edit: it's in your link already.

    • SaberX on 06/03/2016 - 23:51
      +1

      that's a strip cut though? From googline they say to avoid those….

  • spersephone on 06/03/2016 - 21:25

    I've got a really cheap confetti one I bought from Officeworks - it was around $50? Every so often I shred things en masse. When we get Medicare receipts, I rip out the Medicare number before putting the document into recycling. I think about what I'm recycling. I try not to throw in anything with a personal address or identity number (Medicare/licence etc) that could possibly be kept for use in identity theft. But I'm not too hung up on it.

    Mine is similar to this one http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/fellowes-po…

    It gets tired quickly, I have to turn it off for a while and let it cool down. It also fills up the basket quite quickly. I'd like to recycle or reuse the shredded paper, but it's not that useful, particularly because it often gets mixed up with plastic/laminated stuff too.

    I'm selective about what I think really needs to be shredded, things like really old bills, bank statements etc every so often, as our filing cabinet just gets too full.

    • PVA on 06/03/2016 - 23:07

      looking at the one in your link and others on the site they say 2minutes operation time to 45minutes cool down, you might be better just shedding each sheet when you need and not when you have a lot of papers.

      • SaberX on 06/03/2016 - 23:56

        The one linked by spersephone for $99 from OW has 4 minutes on, 30 mins off cool time. To be honest I never knew shreddders had a cooldown to on ratio! I've always used one at home and never a 'personal' machine , so it's always just been used whenever we felt like it. All that held us back was how fast it got full (very quick when your shredding and the strips need pushing down to compact).

        That said you're probably right, if you have a few mail messages, you could colelct them and shred them pretty quickly that 4 minutes is probably quite sometime. Power off, shred more in the day or another day? I could be wrong, maybe 'better' shredders work for 20, 30 minutes on time? This is $99 after all… hmmmm.

    • SaberX on 06/03/2016 - 23:53

      So you don't necessarily shred everything? I.e. in your exmaple you mentioned just ripping out your medicare numbers (which i assume you dispose in a rubbish bin) while you throw the rest of the receipt ni the recylcling bin? Doing some research it says to shred (at least american sites) any bank offers (even if general targeted with no account numbers) and even those address sheets in magazine subscriptions? I'm not too sure how paranoid these things are and overdone…

      But why can't you put your shredded items into your recycling bin? If you can't reuse it (i.e. compost/worm farm?)

      I checked out the fellowes, so your cross cut shredder does it do a decent job of how tiny/fine it shreds things down to?

      Edit: I agree - the files are getting overloaded and I thnk I need to clear out old 'account' changes and detials and everything filed and get back down to bare minimums. Might thing of starting to pdf things but that opens a whole new can of worms - if your laptop gets compromised, online storage boxes security etc -_-"

      • spersephone on 07/03/2016 - 10:35

        I don't get bank offers, we don't have credit cards. I don't have any magazine subscriptions, only through Zinio. I don't leave mine plugged in, as I have children. So every so often I'll shred maybe a pile of 20-50 documents. That suits my shredding needs.

  • Davo1111 on 06/03/2016 - 21:30

    anything with your name on it

  • Bonsaichop on 06/03/2016 - 21:32
    +1

    The most important part about buying a shredder is that it is a cross-cut. The cheaper ones do not tend to do thicker things like credit cards, or do them very well they tend to overload/overheat after doing several sheets, because they're smaller they can't do several pages at a time.

    What we do is scan all letters coming in, save them on the computer and shred the originals. Saves us having to dedicate a heap of filing space. Just scan as a PDF, and save them in different folders like car insurance, home insurance, xyz credit card, gas, electricity etc.

    Anything with an address, name or identifying details gets shredded otherwise.

    Oh- and keep hair away from them: http://www.overclockers.com.au/image.php?pic=images/newspics…

    • SaberX on 06/03/2016 - 23:58

      Yeah, credit cards aren't a huge issue. I can cut it across diagonal with a scissors, I'm not too sure what else they can 'doo with them' if they retrieve a non-shredded one? The cards are all deactivated once you receive your new one? Maybe your card no. or your full name on the card?

      I read one article by this lady who was "pdfing" and scanning her whole room into electronic to save paper (full paper-less room). It's an interesting concept - the only issue is a whole bag of worms: are you saving onto your computer or onto an online storage box (cloud storage)? If the former - how do you protect against a stolen laptop where all the data is presented on a folder'ised plate. Second if online cloud storage you also have electronic security issues, but more importantly the integrity of uploading your life's photos, documents, and to have the service shutdown or the like? Of course this is very unlikely with google or microsoft's products, but still…

      The hair picture is nasty.. hopefully fake! haha.

      • Bonsaichop on 07/03/2016 - 08:40
        +1

        Yeah I dumbed down the scanning bit..

        What's done is it's scanned and uploaded to our NAS (Synology DS-419+) on a passworded volume. Within that volume is an encrypted sparsebundle (writeable disk image with expandable storage) to which the files are uploaded.

        Every night it backs up to an USB drive permanently attached, once a week a second backup is done to USB which is stored elsewhere.

        Encryption doesn't solve everything, if someone is determined enough they'll break it, I could do it myself if I had to given enough GPU farm power. It's just a deterrent, like locking your front door to your house instead of leaving it wide open. There's no sure way of eliminating every kind of attack unless you have a photographic memory- of which I envy those with that super-human power!

        • SaberX on 07/03/2016 - 16:26

          haha abit too technical now for me to understand, but I agree anyhting can be compromised if they really want to. But the everyday thief or opportunistic individual probably won't bother, or they may be spending a while doing so… i was looking into how to encrypt a whole laptop (like how you can encrypt your whole device on an android phone) - just couldn't work out what software.

          That said, there isn't a way to upload to cloud storage without encrypting/locking the files firsT? SO in your circumstance or others if you uploaded to cloud storage you could never access it online to read the file i.e. through onedrive or google drive, but would have to download, then unencrypt/remove protections etc. before the file became readable?

      • conan2000 on 07/03/2016 - 08:57
        +1

        I PDF all of my documents with my scanner and then shred the originals.

        If you're worried about security of stolen devices or cloud storage then you can quite easily encrypt the folders or entire hard drive.

        • SaberX on 07/03/2016 - 16:28

          I wanted to do this but was new to it and wasn't sure what software could encrypt the entire hard drive? Or even folders?

          Liek with android you can 'encrypt' your whole phone with a password and a click of a button so that before booting up you need the password. Anyone accessing old erased data or even wiping the phone could then only see a password encrypted package of everything.

          Similarly with a laptop - how would you recommend one does this so that even if the hard drive is ripped out into an external, windows reinstalled or the like, or old data remains encrypted securely?

          That remains my biggest problem to date with storing on physical laptop/external hard drives, as I don't know how to securely encrypt them with a password.

        • conan2000 on 07/03/2016 - 22:51

          @SaberX:

          Many laptops have encrypted hard drives by default now, such as my Surface Pro 3. Microsoft Bitlocker is free, so you can try enabling that. VeraCrypt is a free software that can be used to encrypt where that isn't an option.

          Best to look up some tutorials for specifically how to do it with each option.

          http://www.gfi.com/blog/the-top-24-free-tools-for-data-encry… - this article has options for how to encrypt for various different purposes. SOmething like 7-zip could be used jsut to encrypt the files you care about.

    • Musing Outloud on 08/03/2016 - 14:22

      Cross cut shredders for paper are better. Strip cut can be put back together quite easily.

      I've used this OW one for the last 18 months without problems. It does get upset when the bin gets full, which is what the customer review (or complaint) on the page was all about.

      When I have used it heavily (tax time) it stops to protect itself from overheating - so I've taken the hint and come back to shred more later. It is fine for a 2 adult family, but while we do work from home, we are not running a business from home so it hasn't had an added load from that either.

      I've kept paper clips, staples, CD/DVD discs & credit cards away just in case…

  • 17833 on 06/03/2016 - 23:56

    Recent similar post https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/234565. Marble250 recommended this one from eBay. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Electric-Home-Office-22L-Cross-Cu…

    • SaberX on 07/03/2016 - 00:02

      Thanks - i will check both links out.'

      Actually I checked the ebay one out. That's a decent price, compared tot he fellowes one from OW postd above:
      http://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/fellowes-po…

      Which does only 6 sheets. 13 litre size. The ebay one has 10 sheets, 20 litre bin, credit cards/cd's.

      Onlyt thing is it doesn't quote the on/off times required (4 minutes on, 30 minutes off for the fellowes).

      Not sure how Lennoxx is as a brand?

  • altomic on 06/03/2016 - 23:58

    i take my documents to work and put them in the secure document disposal bin.

    • SaberX on 07/03/2016 - 00:02
      +1

      Good idea… i have one too but it can be quite troublesome having to store up and cart things to work (if you take public transport). Plus it's always good to 'clear' things out during a clean on the spot. Somehow it's more motivating and cleansing then piling it up to take to work on Monday haha.

  • altomic on 07/03/2016 - 00:33
    +1

    Buy a gas bbq and burn them.

    • Nugs on 07/03/2016 - 10:56

      you can buy a lot of matches for $100

  • kingmw on 07/03/2016 - 08:40

    Have a Fellowes Cross Cut Shredder and love it. I only shred important documents (bills, statements, insurance etc) every couple of months after I scan them (Highly recommend getting one with an automatic document feeder +/- duplex to save time). There are too many items with your name and address on them and I believe you are unlikely able to shred them all.

    • SaberX on 07/03/2016 - 16:24

      my biggest issue is how to store the scanned documents (both system /procedure wise and where, but mainly security) - i like thie idea otherwise of putting it all in electronically.

      AT one stage I even started saving statements to my laptop then realised it was probably more secure just leaving them online the credit card sites incase my computer was compromised :(

      • kingmw on 08/03/2016 - 16:21

        Cloud storage (i.e. Dropbox) with Boxcryptor. I use the free version which allows 2 computers to access at any one time.

  • investastrix on 07/03/2016 - 09:39

    After shredding how do you dispose it? Recycling bin or the rubbish bin?

    Isn't it just safe to tear them up and throw into rubbish bin?

  • unclekenz on 07/03/2016 - 12:49

    This may offer home-based alternate disposal best practices …

    http://www.zerowaste.sa.gov.au/your-questions/shredded-paper

  • StuffnStuff on 07/03/2016 - 20:29

    I use a Fellows cross Cut shredder that also handles CD's/Credit cards. Scanning is great but to make life easier you do really need a double sided/document feed scanner. The other thing with scanning, it is nothing more than a picture unless you also use OCR scanning software that will convert the scanned image into a searchable text document. Uploading to a cloud based system - make sure you read the terms and conditions especially with free services. Some compress photos to a lower resolution so if you need them back you wont get the original size that you uploaded. More of a concern is that some free services can reuse anything uploaded for their own use. Nothing is free in this world.

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