Best Results Organizing

Some of the best ideas come from readers. Not long ago, E. emailed to say:

I recently found out there are stampers available that are supposed to obliterate your address and allow you to recycle paper that would ordinarily be shredded.

E. asked if I might review the various stampers for quality, and even provided links to multiple products like Plus ID Guard Stamp, XStamper’s Secure Stamp and ExcelMark’s Theft Protection Stamp) in case I might have an opinion on features or brands.

As I drafted my reply, I apologized in advance, because I knew my answer was probably not the one E. wanted to hear. More than anything, these stampers reminded me of the Unitasker Wednesday feature on Erin Doland’s excellent Unclutterer blog. They do one thing only, and not as well as an obvious alternative.

STAMPER VS. SHREDDER

First, I generally wondered under what conditions might one want to use a stamper to make a piece of paper recyclable, when shredding a piece of paper would accomplish the same thing with no fear of a reversal of the process (as happens with check washing). A good cross-cut shredder makes it impossible to recreate the original document’s information (and therefore, renders the paper useless to identity thieves, corporate espionage workers or the spies on Chuck), whereas inks can often be removed by an industrious thief.

Next, putting aside the question of recycling, I wondered under what circumstances I’d advise using a black-out stamper rather than a shredder to maintain the integrity of some of the written material, while making the rest opaque. This is done well by various governments, for example, when portions of documents are redacted to protect an individual’s privacy or to maintain classified information:

  

Nowadays, the government redacts documents electronically. Just as Paper Doll might use the highlighting function with a yellow background, one can redact the digital text with a black background like so:  I bet you’re wondering what this says. 

However, I’m dubious that this is a product that those of us not involved in government service or responsible for top secret information would find useful or help us be more productive. It’s far more likely that if we want to keep a document, we’ll want to see all of it, and if we no longer need it, we’ll be willing to destroy it in full.

I noted to E. that an address is a matter of public record, so obliterating it, alone (when there’s no Social Security or account number to hide), does little for protection against identity theft. Anyone can generally access that data as a matter of course via Google, SpokeO or any of a variety of search engines.

Finally, the idea of hand-stamping each convenience check sent by banks and credit card companies is exhausting. Feeding a short stack into the shredder and letting it nibble up 12 checks (and the accompanying hard-sell tactics) at one time seems eminently more appealing.

DO STAMPERS WORK?

Beyond the relative merits of shredders vs. stampers, there are practical considerations raised. I have three initial concerns:

1) Washability — A common type of fraud is check washing, where ink is removed from checks with the application of simple solvents like isopropanol or acetone, such as is found in nail polish remover. There are relatively few commercial inks that are not “washable”, which is why there is so much concern about check washing for identity theft purposes.

If a typical dye-based ink is used in the stamp ink, a determined thief can access the information below. Check washing, itself, can be averted by using gel-based inks that are not washable, but the makers of identity protection stampers don’t generally make known the contents of their inks, so it’s difficult to judge the merits of their formulas.

2) Adherence — At least one of the major brands even admits that their ink will not adhere to glossy paper, which eliminates the ability to obscure names and addresses from magazines covers, which are generally labeled electronically directly on the magazines, rather than on adhesive labels.

One of the major stamp manufacturer’s web sites states:

*May not adhere to all surfaces.
Not recommended for use on the following surfaces: Sealed postcards, coated paper, glossy paper and photo paper.

3) Security of Obscurity — The purpose of the ink is to obscure the text beneath. Even if the ink cannot be washed or wiped off, stamper ink is not exactly akin to blocking Superman’s X-ray vision with lead. Application of different wavelengths of light can render the obscured text visible. Sometimes, even a flashlight or light table (such as is used for viewing negatives or slides) will work.

One of the better-selling brands of privacy stamps promotes the product by saying, “Specially formulated ink ensures that addresses will not bleed through.” However, in an online review, a user states that she:

Another review of the same product stated that that ink could be wiped off glossy pages within 24 hours.

Treated paper (i.e., anything that is not fibrous, allowing the ink to soak into the paper), in general, can’t be easily sullied by stampers. So, the inking won’t obliterate information on glossy paper, and though it may do so on things like contracts or other legal or financial paperwork, a diligent identity thief might be able to wash the ink and get at the desired information. And again, if the written information were of a sensitive enough nature to keep private, you’d likely want to keep it intact in a safe deposit box or shred it completely once you no longer needed to maintain the complete document.

So, we’ve generally come full circle. Except…

A CAVEAT: PAPER DOLL‘S SHORTSIGHTEDNESS

When I originally replied to E.’s letter, I was thinking inside the (paper) box. Although E. did not state it, further research indicates to me that she might have been concerned about the wisdom of recycling shredded paper. According to Ecocycle.org, there are some lesser-known drawbacks to shredding:

• The length of a paper fiber determines its value, because longer fibers can be used to manufacture higher-grade papers and can be recycled more times. Thus, the tiny confetti-esque bits of cross-cut paper that do so much to protect our privacy aren’t necessarily stellar with regard to protecting the environment.
• The paper mills that purchase paper for the recycling process must do a “quality sort” before sending paper on to the giant paper-munching machines. Because it’s difficult to judge the quality of the smallest bits, they are often discarded and sent to landfills rather than processed for recycling.
• Recycling facilities often use filters to remove non-fibrous contaminants (like chunks of dirt, metal or plastic). Although this improves the end-quality of the recycled paper, due to the small size of shredded paper, the tiniest bits may be grabbed by the filters and discarded rather than recycled.

Because of these issues, it’s true that some communities will not recycle shredded paper, and some environmentally-minded consumers prefer not to shred if the paper can’t be recycled. However, other communities are happy to accept shredded paper to mix with other low-quality paper supplies. And, of course, Corporate America must, by virtue of operational security and various types of legislation, shred paper, such that document destruction companies like Shred Nations report recycling 10,000 tons of shredded paper each month.

Given the above, Paper Doll believes that if we did have to choose between ensuring high-quality protection against identity theft (via shredding) which might make recycling more difficult, and a lower-quality protection (via stamping) with what seems to be a negligible benefit in the enormity of the recycling process, shredding beats stamping. No contest.

However, as with most things, there is a middle ground to consider. First, check to see if your community is able to recycle the shredded paper you discard — you may be pleasantly surprised. Second, residential shredding refuse is minimal compared to that used by businesses, meaning that the impact of shredding your household’s documents is a drop in the ocean compared to the impact of big business.

If you are concerned enough about the environment to be considering stampers in lieu of shredding for environmental reasons, why not contact local business-oriented document destruction companies in your area to see whether they currently recycle the paper they collect and shred?

SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Let’s say you were thinking about donating a magazine to a medical office, hospice or homeless shelter, or somewhere else where a number of persons unknown to you would have the opportunity to view your name and address. While the likelihood of opportunistic identity theft is always greater than zero, it’s easily avoided. Before donating magazines, simply cut out the address label portion. It prevents people from knowing your name and address if all they have is the magazine, and always works, unlike the stampers, which will not work on glossy or film-based paper. The reverse of the cover page is almost always an advertisement, eliminating any chance you’ll reduce the next reader’s enjoyment.

Sometimes, you might wish to obscure personal data in order to post scans or photos of mail or documents to a blog or website. If you’re involved in these types of creative endeavors, I’d encourage you to scan the item first, then use photo software or applications (like MS Paint or iPhoto) to “spray-paint” and blur or cover the data you want hidden.

SUMMARY

Going back to E.’s original inquiry then, I maintain that there’s relatively little reason to obscure information like a name and address, anyway, but no matter how remotely sensitive the information you hope to conceal might be, identity protection stampers seem like a particularly weak and non-permanent solution. In essence, then, Paper Doll feels that a simple, portable and less expensive option, a black Sharpie, will succeed in doing all that these stampers can (if you’re merely trying to hide information from a casually curious observer), while a decent shredder will provide so much more protection against any intentional ne’er-do-well.

It’s a rarity that Paper Doll speaks ill of a product; I usually keep silent if I don’t have anything positive to say. But, because I was asked, I have to say that I found little to endear me to privacy stamps. However, I invite readers to comment and let me know if you think I might be off-base. Please feel free to stamp out my opinion, and share your own.