How serious or thoughtful are we about our personal security?  Certainly those who frequent clubs and pubs are conscious of  spiked drinks and strangers – and kids are taught about stranger danger.  However, security is more than just our personal space, think about all the documentation we have online or in files around our home and offices.

I was tackling my annual Xmas clean-up this morning, and dumping those magazines I was going to read, that clip from the ‘Tiser that was critical, but I never got around to using into the recycle bin.  Walking back inside I noticed a ‘typed report’ lying on the ground that I must have dropped.  Picking it up I placed it on some other papers to go through once the bulk of the accumulated ‘stuff’ had been sorted and relegated to the Green Bin.

Sitting outside checking the pile of reports and other papers over a coffee and lunch I came across the paper I thought I’d dropped on the front porch.  It was not mine.  It was a psychiatric assessment on a twenty year-old woman whom I will call Jane.  It outlines Jane’s medical history, depression, anxiety, and even more intimate details of her family and medical background.  I assume that the report had been dumped in her rubbish bin, but at some stage it had blown out of the rubbish collection truck.  This assumption is based on Jane living no where near me, and the medical practices mentioned in the report are also in distant suburbs.  In less than a minute I found Jane on FB.

Many of us do the ‘annual clean-up’ around this time of the year and toss out old financial statements, tax returns, receipts and numerous other files.  How conscious are we though of our privacy.  Cyber security is regularly discussed online and in the media.  However, we need to be aware of the other documents and files that we have in our homes and offices.  I’m not advocating paranoia here, but a level of common sense.  Shred those personal documents before they get to the green bin, or at least rip them up a few times.

I consider myself a reasonable guy, so as for Jane and her medical report, it is shredded along with my personal papers.  As for her FB page – Jane who?