Sean Fredricks

Every New York school, college, and university that receives federal funding must comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act — better known as FERPA. While most administrators focus on who can access student records, fewer give proper attention to how those records are destroyed when they’re no longer needed. FERPA student record shredding […]

New York State’s data breach notification law is among the most demanding in the nation — and it was made significantly stricter when the SHIELD Act updated it in 2019. For businesses operating in New York City, Long Island, Westchester, and across the state, understanding the law’s requirements is important. But understanding how to avoid

Identity theft remains one of the most prevalent financial crimes in New York, and businesses — not just individuals — are often both victims and unwitting enablers of identity theft through inadequate document disposal practices. New York State has enacted some of the nation’s strongest consumer protection laws targeting identity theft, and those laws create

If your New York retail business accepts credit cards — and almost every business does — you are subject to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). This set of security requirements, established by the major payment card brands, governs how cardholder data is stored, processed, transmitted, and ultimately destroyed. For New York

For banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, investment advisors, insurance companies, and other financial institutions serving New York City and across the state, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) — also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 — establishes comprehensive requirements for protecting the privacy and security of customer financial information. Among those requirements is

For New York financial firms, public companies, and their accounting and legal advisors, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) fundamentally changed the landscape of document management and destruction. Enacted in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals, SOX doesn’t just tell companies how to keep records — it makes document destruction before required

Most New York business owners have heard of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), but fewer are aware of one of its most important provisions for everyday business operations: the FACTA Disposal Rule. Enacted as part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) of 2003, this federal rule imposes specific legal obligations on

For healthcare providers and their business associates operating in New York City and across the state, HIPAA compliance is a daily reality — but one aspect of the law that frequently trips up even well-intentioned practices is document retention and destruction. The question isn’t just “how long do we keep medical records?” but also “when

In March 2020, New York State significantly strengthened its data protection laws with the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security (SHIELD) Act. For New York businesses, the SHIELD Act represented a major expansion of obligations around how private information is collected, stored, and — critically — disposed of. Unlike previous laws that were narrowly

Every New York business — from a solo practitioner in a Chelsea co-working space to a 500-person financial firm on Wall Street — generates documents containing sensitive information. Customer records, employee files, financial statements, contracts, tax documents, medical records: these papers pile up year after year. When their useful life ends, they don’t just lose