R.I. Gen. Laws § 6-52-2: Safe destruction of documents.

A business shall take reasonable steps to destroy or arrange for the destruction of a customer’s personal information within its custody and control that is no longer to be retained by the business by shredding, erasing, or otherwise destroying and/or modifying the personal information in those records to make it unreadable or indecipherable through any means for the purpose of:

(1) Ensuring the security and confidentiality of customer personal information;

(2) Protecting against any reasonably foreseeable threats or hazards to the security or integrity of customer personal information; and

(3) Protecting against unauthorized access to, or use of, customer personal information that could result in substantial harm or inconvenience to any customer.