Do you use a fax machine at work?

[disneysteve]

I don't see how a fax machine is easier.

Processing an email:
1. Open the email
2. Print it out
3. Sign the form
4. Scan the form
5. Email the file

Processing a fax:
1. Sign the form
2. Fax it back

[MonkeyMama]

Fax machines have survived largely due to the (false) presumption that fax machines are "more secure" than other means of electronic transmission. This is most prevalent in the financial, medical, and (to some extent) government sectors (notably excepted: DoD, DoS). That belief is a crock, because in most cases, fax machines do not encrypt data in any way. Plus, many (most?) phone service providers are moving to VOIP transmission anyway, so phone (fax) signals are being digitized and pushed across the internet regardless, so you don't even get the quasi-security of hard-line transmission that can only be tapped with physical access to the line. There's no security protocols on either end, so you never know who actually receives it.

Yeah, I was thinking that was the other reason we do more faxing. I have no idea why it is so widely believed that faxes are more secure. (Same for snail mail). I mean, in our office we can just fax or mail personal tax and financial information but have to redact or password protect everything we e-mail. Though I know that's dumb and fax is obviously not more secure, sometimes it's just easier to fax than to go through all the extra steps.

[phantom]

I'm a software engineer. There might be a fax machine in our office that sales people use for contracts, but I don't even know where it was. The only time I've ever had to deal with signed documents was when I got a company credit card, and for that, I just scanned the document, emailed it to myself, and forwarded it to the person in another office in charge of handling that stuff.

I don't get why people put so much value on seeing a picture of a scribble on a piece of paper. No method of verifying that something originated from the source you think it originated from is perfect. But, I'm not sure it get much worse that looking at an inconsistent squiggly line for which you don't even have a point of comparison.

[greenskeeper]

Processing an email:
1. Open the email
2. Print it out
3. Sign the form
4. Scan the form
5. Email the file

Processing a fax:
1. Sign the form
2. Fax it back

e-documents we use:

1. open the email
2. e-sign
3. click send

Still plenty of fax machines in the office as well (govt forms, etc, as mentioned)

[disneysteve]

e-documents we use:

1. open the email
2. e-sign
3. click send

Still plenty of fax machines in the office as well (govt forms, etc, as mentioned)

I've dealt with e-documents plenty of times personally, like for the HELOC we recently opened, but almost never at work. There are 2 home care companies that have a website where we can "sign" orders that they used to fax to us but that is the exception by far. Some of the companies actually need us to sign and fax back the orders and also mail them back because they need the original. But they can't actually start care until they at least have the faxed version back.

[kork13]

I don't get why people put so much value on seeing a picture of a scribble on a piece of paper. No method of verifying that something originated from the source you think it originated from is perfect. But, I'm not sure it get much worse that looking at an inconsistent squiggly line for which you don't even have a point of comparison.

Hahaha yeah, I've always found that entertaining. As I said, DoD has transitioned to encrypted email for sending documents, and along with that, moved largely to electronic signatures (as mentioned by greenskeeper) that publish your full name, ID number, and date/time stamp. I personally prefer it a great deal, because you can review, sign, process, and file documents electronically. No paper copies to clog up desks and safes & file cabinets, and you don't burn through as much paper that is only going to get shredded the next day. I keep all of my documents on our digital server, and can get at them anywhere. Very convenient.

[moneybags]

I get so many scam calls that I'm seriously considering cancelling my landline.

I cancelled my landline, and the scam calls on my cell phone increased. It might of just been a coincidence, but sort of odd timing.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

yeah but IRS wants stuff faxed.

[GrimJack]

I've heard a couple of comments recently, when someone mentioned sending or receiving a fax, saying that faxes are obsolete and nobody uses them anymore.

I was surprised to hear that because at least in my field, medicine, we send and receive faxes constantly. I got to my office about 45 minutes ago and I've already sent 4 faxes and responded to several others.

It sounds like this isn't true elsewhere. Do you utilize faxing at work and, if so, what type of work do you do? If you don't use faxes, what has replaced it? Email, I'm guessing.

We get a lot of forms that need to be signed and returned. Without faxes, we would need to print out the email, sign it, scan it in, and email it back. It is far more efficient to just sign and return a fax. My staff would waste a huge amount of time if we didn't have faxing capabilities.

The difference between faxes and email is that faxes are point to point and email gets stored and forwarded multiple times - leaving data behind that can be accessed by various exploits.

All the modern copiers are scanners to facilitate the process - that means that every document printed or copied is stored on a hard drive in the copier; what happens to that data when the copier is gotten rid of? I personally would take a hammer to the drive just before running it through a shredder (though I would try to scavenge the rare earth super-magnates).