"We may not have seen any public enforcement action yet, but the federal government is very serious" about the disposal rules -- as are states, Bergin said.

A settlement agreement that the FTC reached with Nations Title Agency Inc. earlier this week is one example of the agency's direction in this regard, said Chris Pierson, a lawyer with Lewis & Roca LLP in Phoenix.

Kansas City-based Nations Title, a subsidiary of real estate firm Nations Holding Co., had been accused by the FTC of failing to properly secure customer data. Among the charges the company faced was that it improperly disposed of documents containing sensitive personal information from a real estate agency in a dumpster.

As part of its settlement with the agency, the company is specifically required to implement the requirements of the FACTA Disposal Rule, he said. "In the consent decree, the FTC orders that the company acknowledge and comply with the disposal rule in future," Pierson said. "The FTC used language [that] I believe foreshadows future action to enforce the Disposal Rule."