Do People Still Fax? Yes, And Here Are The Reasons Why
I was as surprised as anybody to learn that fax is alive and well in the 21st century. It seemed like one of those things that ended in the 90s when the internet became ubiquitous.
Oddly, faxing is just as important as it ever was and if you aren’t using it in your business, you need to make it a priority as a business owner.
Of course, it is highly dependant on what type of business you have as to whether you should be faxing or not. In this article, we will go over some of the reasons why you may want to keep that fax machine on.
Regulated industries
With the rise of cybercrimes and the ease that hackers can access sensitive information, there are many regulated businesses that can only accept hard copies of legal documents.
Digital signatures are not valid for many documents in a court of law. A faxed copy of a signed hard copy is the only way to do this without needing to Fedex the actual document.
And it is very easy to since a fax machine is not always needed. People that know how to send a fax online can do this without needing to send a fax over a phone line. It is not the same thing as sending an email as that is not always secure. Instead, many companies are using the cloud, or more recently, the blockchain to securely send a fax online.
Emails are not secure
As I just mentioned, sending an email is not always very safe. Passwords can be hacked giving access to your sensitive emails very easily. This was never more evident than during the election season in 2016 when the Democratic National Committee had their emails hacked by Russians.
If your business is political or international, then chances are that you are a target for hackers.
Even if you use email with strong encryption, it can still be bypassed and sensitive documents leaked.
The only way to hack a fax is at the point of transmission. That means a hacker would have to know the exact moment a fax is being sent to be able to intercept it. And with the blockchain being used to send secure documents when faxing online, it makes it even more difficult for a cybercrime to occur.
Other countries still rely on fax
No matter how small your business these days, chances are you do some work internationally. With the internet, everybody is your market and outsourcing often requires people overseas doing work for you.
In many cases, a fax is necessary for bureaucratic reasons in the country where you need to do business. Even if the document is not sensitive, a hard signature is often required.
You are almost guaranteed to need to fax if you are doing any business with Japanese or Isreali companies. It’s better to have a fax machine or online fax and not need it than to need it and not have it!