Today, information flows seamlessly across digital networks. If you think data security concerns do not extend to paper-based documents, you’d be incorrect.

Despite the revolutionary shift towards digital record-keeping, paper still reigns supreme in the legal world. However, the risks associated with storing paper legal documents, whether at home or in an office, cannot be overlooked.

Risks of Maintaining Legal Documents as Paper Records

One of the most common risks associated with paper legal documents is the potential for unauthorized access. Whether stored at home or in an office, documents may be inadvertently exposed to family members, visitors, or even employees, compromising the confidentiality and security of sensitive information.

Employees, Visitors, and Burglars

Think of all the individuals you come into contact with routinely, often daily. Delivery services, cleaning services, repair workers, maintenance workers, landscapers, employees, clients, contractors, and caregivers all present a risk of unauthorized access to paper legal documents. By their presence in your home or office, these individuals have access to your documents, whether inadvertent or by surreptitious means, and could take advantage of your confidential data.

Risk of exposure is not just limited to service employees or consultants. All the other guests that gain entrance to your home or place of business, such as visitors, invited guests and their friends, and children, also present a security risk. Without adequate safeguards, documents may be tampered with or destroyed and nobody will know until it is too late to fix it.

Burglars or identity thieves may specifically target homes or offices in search of personal and financial information contained within legal documents. Once obtained, this information can be exploited for criminal activities, posing a significant threat to individuals and organizations alike.

Environmental Risks

In addition to unauthorized access, paper legal documents are susceptible to damage from environmental factors such as fires, floods, or pests. Without proper protection and storage measures, documents can deteriorate over time, leading to loss of legibility or integrity.

Data Privacy Regulations

Electronic storage solutions, while a step in the right direction, are not enough. Despite their prevalence, many firms still rely on physical copies of documents. However, it’s crucial to recognize that legal documents, regardless of format, are regulated by data privacy laws and regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. Compliance with these regulations requires robust security measures to safeguard against unauthorized access and data breaches. The world of legal documents has not kept up with the times.

The Time to Mitigate Risks is NOW

Finally, a viable solution has entered the legal landscape. Adhering to data privacy rules while managing paper-based legal documents is challenging when legal documents have not kept pace with technology. It requires far more than just electronic document storage – it requires document registration. Document registration is not your scanned PDFs (which can be altered) saved in a cloud somewhere; this is actual registration of the data contained in the paper legal document to lock it in.

The article was written by Sabine Zimmerhansl, Mag. Phil., CEO –  illuminote