Shredding documents can help you protect your client's information as well as your proprietary business information. For the most part, you should shred any document that you plan on throwing away. You should take extra effort to shred documents that may contain information such as Social Security numbers, credit card information, employee's private health information, payroll information, marketing strategies, new product information, protected vendor or client information, and more. You should also make sure to destroy or wipe electronic copies of the documents as well. Sensitive files saved on portable devices such as laptops, mobile phones and tablets should be password protected and encrypted.