The fax machine is a symbol of obsolete technology long superseded by computer networks — but faxing is actually growing in popularity.
Four years ago, I wrote a history of 160 years of faxing, saying my book covered “the rise and fall of the fax machine.” The end I predicted has not yet come: Millions of people, businesses and community groups send millions of faxed pages every day, from stand-alone fax machines, multifunction printers and computer-based fax services. It turns out that in many cases, faxing is more secure, easier to use and better suited to existing work habits than computer-based messaging.
Faxing remains alive and well, especially in Japan and
Germany — and in major sectors of the U.S. economy, such as health care and financial services. Countless emails flash back and forth, but millions of faxes travel the world daily, too. Even parts of the federal government preferred faxes over email for many years thereafter. Not until 2010 did the Drug Enforcement Administration allow electronic signatures for Schedule II drugs such as Ritalin and opiates, about 10 percent of all prescriptions. That meant a pharmacist could accept a faxed prescription but not one scanned and sent by email.
The most recent FBI Criminal Justice Information Services policy allows faxing from physical fax machines without encrypting the message, but demands encryption for all email and Internet communications, including cloud-based faxing. It’s much harder to intercept faxes than unencrypted email messages.
Another reason faxing hangs on is because competing technologies are weak. The health-care industry generates huge amounts of data for each patient. That should make it fertile ground for a fully digital record-keeping system, “where data can flow easily between patient, provider, caregivers, researchers, innovators and payers,” said Seema Verma, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a recent speech.
