Reply #12: Well, I can see your point, but

[pipi_k]

the same can happen even without records being online.

Some time ago a local bank got into trouble for dumping its financial records in a dumpster without shredding them first.

There are probably loads of medical facilities that are guilty of the same thing.

I used to work in the data processing dept of an HMO and we saw literally thousands of medical records pass through, but we were very serious about patient confidentiality and shredding stuff after it had gone into the computer system. I'm not so sure about other places, though....

people are just plain lazy and don't want to take the time to shred stuff, figuring nobody's going to bother going through the dumpsters.

Hah...little do they know!