Last time I had to send something I had the option of scan and email or fax. I personally prefer to use fax as I have better luck with it. If you object to receiving paper faxes, there are services out there that allow you to receive faxes and convert them to PDF and email to you. In fact my VoIP provider Callcentric provides such service, but only provides it for receive only. I know you can get fax software for Asterisk that does the same thing. I don't use these as I prefer to send and receive paper faxes.
Some of our employees who are mostly on the road get this service. Since I have an office, I don't. Although I suppose I have never asked for it. Maybe...
Why do you prefer paper faxes? With email, I know it was delivered, with email I know if you sent it or not. With a fax, they malfunction a lot and even if it did go through, maybe someone else put it somewhere and now it is lost.
If I start with a paper document, fax is a lot easier to transmit. As for delivery, the machine knows if there was a failure or not. I always follow up a fax with another form of communication, normally a telephone call unless the recipient requests otherwise as was the case when I did a telephone number port.
I no longer have the ability to fax at work (we have a secure email system that makes the harder to intercept argument moot), I do have the ability to fax at home. My fax number costs me a $1.95 a month plus actual incoming use (outgoing shares minutes with my voice lines). My home phone is set up like the old Mythbuster's saying though "If its worth doing, its worth overdoing."
I had this thought about faxes and why they’re still around. Here’s what I found:
courts routinely uphold fax signatures, treating them with the same weight as other legal autographs.
many doctors and the hospitals they work for still consider fax machines more secure than email for transmitting information protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly called HIPAA.
In the aftermath of the Sony hack, where Hollywood elite’s emails were stolen and published online, many people reportedly started using their crusty old fax machines out of fear. Fax, Coopersmith warns, can be hacked like any other technology, but it’s still hard to imagine someone wielding a fax interceptor in 2018.
In Japan, where it seems the majority of people still rely on faxing for all manner of communication, it’s very valuable
Source: Why do we still have fax machines? - Popular Science
I suppose I can see the privacy point of it, but only if the machine is locked in its own room. If you have a fax machine transmitting HIPAA restricted information in a common area of a health facility anyone in the office can view that information, even if it isn't needed for them to function in their job duties [thus violating HIPPA].
Every so often at work I get the "what's your fax number" question, I just say we don't have one because the only person I've seen use it curses like a maniac whenever she goes near the thing.
We don't have fax where I work anymore. If I need to send a scanned document, I need to go to the Multi-function machine, insert and authenticate my credential, scan the document to an email (the machine will only email the user making the scan, nobody else). Once complete, I remove my document and credential, go back to my desk and retrieve the document from the email from the scanner and then email it to whomever needs it. Of course our system is a bit more secure than most email systems, we have end to end encryption that allows us to protect sensitive information better than fax.
Wait? How does fax protect sensitive information?
It doesn't, what improves the security of fax is the fact that there is a limited opportunity for interception. With email, the message is stored as it is forwarded, but with fax, the only time the message can be intercepted is during transmission, unless a recorder is attached to the telephone line (or the packets are logged with VoIP).
It is amazing to me that fax machines are still a thing. I get really annoyed when I have to receive a fax. Do they even sell copy machines that don't convert to PDF anymore? Hell I can create a PDF with my phone and email it to you. Seriously fuck fax machines.