Paul Muschick reports that a woman found unshredded paperwork from Berks & Beyond Employment Services in an Allentown recycling center. The papers included job applications, complete with SSN, job histories, and personal details, as well as employee time sheets and other personal information.
Chris Garner, owner of Berks & Beyond, told me a limited amount of paperwork likely got mixed in by mistake with desks, filing cabinets and computers that were being removed by a hauling service as the agency’s Allentown office cleaned out its basement.
“We don’t take stuff there and just dump it on purpose,” he said.
Read more on The Morning Call. Be prepared to feel irritated at the somewhat casual/minimizing response of the agency’s owner. Consider this statement:
If an extensive amount of documents is determined to have been taken to the recycling center, he said, Berks & Beyond would notify clients whose information could have been exposed.
“Obviously, we’re concerned with everybody’s privacy but I don’t think the amount of information would have been significant,” he said.
As long as identity information was involved and sufficient to create a risk of identity theft, the individuals should be notified. Even if there was only a few individuals.