Disposition action may encompass:

• immediate physical destruction, including overwriting and deletion
• retention for a further period within the business unit
• transfer to an appropriate storage area or medium under organizational control
• transfer to another organization that has assumed responsibility for the business activity through restructure sale or privatization
• transfer to a storage area managed on behalf of the organization by an independent provider
• transfer to an organizational archive
• transfer to an external archives authority

The following principles should govern the physical destruction of records:

• Destruction should always be authorized
• Records pertaining to pending or actual litigation or investigation should not be destroyed
• Records destruction should be carried out in a way that preserves the confidentiality of any information they contain.
• All copies of records that are authorized for destruction, including security copies, preservation copies and backup copies, should be destroyed.