For fax sake: 5 ways faxing is better than emailing

Modern technology notwithstanding, a fax these days is still a common sight in hospitals, doctor’s offices, clinics… if you see medical staff at work, you know there’s a fax machine nearby.

And with good reason. Fax technology has been with us for more than 100 years. That’s far longer than email. And its longevity isn’t the only reason why so many people still use fax technology to send sensitive data. Below are 5 reasons for choosing fax over email.

5 reasons for choosing fax over email

1. Extra time off while at work

Sending an email all across the world takes a split second. Sending a fax the same distance? Easily a few minutes. Each and every time!

That’s time you could’ve spent doing other important things, but thanks to fax technology you get a little break every time you use it.

At Smartlockr, we recommend you enjoy a cup of freshly brewed coffee each time you send a fax, as both take up the same amount of time.

Granted, it’s not as efficient as clicking ‘send’ and moving on to your next task, but people have been using fax machines for eons. So it must be good, right?

2. Even more extra time off when sending large files

Remember when computer files and download speeds were expressed in kilobytes? It was a simpler time. Thanks to fax machines, you can make yesteryear linger just a little longer!

Not only do fax machines take forever to complete a task, the tasks they’re capable of are miniscule compared to email technology.

Using a secure email solution like Smartlockr, you can send up to 5 terabytes of information all over the world in seconds. Using a fax, you’d have to send millions of pages, one by one.

Fax machines don’t allow you to upload any attachments, so if you want to send a big file…well, just imagine how many coffee breaks you can enjoy using a fax machine to send large files!

3. Even more extra additional time off when sharing a fax machine with others

These days you can send emails securely from a computer, a laptop, tablet or phone. This means sending an email is never an excuse to lose focus on your job, as it can be done in a second, anytime, anywhere.

Fax machines are immoveable as the buildings they're plugged into. So sending a fax means dropping what you’re doing and getting to the nearest machine.

And that’s not even counting the time spent standing in line at a fax machine, waiting for others to be done using it. This is especially time-consuming if you’re in line behind a person who sends all their daily faxes in one go.

Honestly, Starbucks should open up stores next to fax machines.

4. A fax is perfect for forgetting about privacy for a moment

If you send sensitive information by fax, you don’t have to worry about people’s privacy. It’s compromized anyway, so why bother?

You see, when you send a fax, all you can do is make sure no one’s looking over your shoulder. Whether the person at the other end of the line is the intended recipient? Who knows: all you know for sure is that, somewhere, there’s a fax machine printing sensitive information to anyone who happens to be there.

One could argue that sending privacy sensitive information by email using two-factor authentication (2FA) negates any of the privacy concerns above. And they’d be right.

But you’re using a fax and 2FA is not an option. So that’s one less thing to worry about.

As an extra bonus, making mistakes is extra common using fax machines. Accidentally typing a wrong phone number is a very typical human error fax technology doesn’t warrant against.

Read more: Biggest cause of data leaks: Human errors

Oh, and information can’t be encrypted by a fax. So if you accidentally send something to the wrong recipient, there’s no safety net of any kind.

5. Fax machines are on their way out

Wait, what?

Surprising as it may seem, the fax era is drawing to a close. This means that all the perks of using a fax – the wasted hours, the lack of privacy, the waste of paper – will soon be a thing of the past.

Okay, so maybe it’s not all that surprising. Modernizing healthcare (or any industry for that matter) invariably means getting rid of antiquated technology.

As you probably gather, we don’t really favor fax over email, for the very reasons listed above. But we do understand the transition from old technology to a new one can be a challenge.

It’s a challenge that can’t be avoided much longer, though: on April 1st, 2022, Dutch network provider KPN will pull the plug from the ISDN network. In other words, faxing will no longer be possible from that day onward.

Aside from the technical implications, removing the fax from our communication landscape also means we have to adapt our work processes and the way we adhere to privacy laws.

And that just might be where we come in!



Smartlockr doesn’t just give organizations the means to communicate securely. We also make it easy. Part of that entails helping out with the transition from old tech to the new.

To see an example of an organization we helped wave their fax goodbye, check out this case study.



To discover what else to look out for when you want to make secure communication easy, download our free whitepaper on this very subject by clicking the link below: