5 ms·

No snark, I'm genuinely surprised: Does anyone still use faxes anywhere on the planet? I sent my last fax twelve years ago, and considered that a retrograde ou

No snark, I'm genuinely surprised: Does anyone still use faxes anywhere on the planet? I sent my last fax twelve years ago, and considered that a retrograde outlier. Some agency requiring a signed piece of paper, not accepting my emailed pdf with a pasted in scrawl, but all roses and thank you, sir when same document uploaded to a random webservice and faxed. I do occasionally give up on Humanity.

fomojola 9y ago
Oddly enough, one of the drivers for building this was actually having to fax a signed doc for a background check (needed for an office lease) in early 2016. There are still a number of industries (for example, healthcare and insurance) where sometimes a fax is the fastest way to get the job done. Folks sometime just want to go with what works.
icelancer 9y ago
Yes. Deal with government and/or the medical industry and you'll be sending upwards of 100/month in a small business.
- robbiemitchell 9y ago
  Correct: HIPAA requires mail, fax, or secure web portal. And lots of doctors are small businesses without sophisticated IT investments. Lots of faxing.
  - fencepost 9y ago
    I just recently learned about some stupid things going on at an oncology practice I work with - for new patients they receive faxed charts from other practices, and they're regularly 250+ pages. Even if we get them set up with some form of HIPAA-compliant secure file transfer service I'm not sure how well it'll work because while I can train and work with the people at that practice, there's not much I can do about the people sending them charts. Best thing I've come up with so far as a quick fix is setting up inbound faxing on their VOIP system with a pool of inbound lines - speed is slower, but they can receive multiple at once and none of them are tying up the main fax line for 3+ hours at a time.
waibelp 9y ago
Sure, try to deal with anything government related in Germany and they almost always ask for faxes. They may use email, too, but the addresses are like an onion address and it's not possible to correctly remember/write down such an email address when hearing it over the wire...
a012 9y ago
There are still many places that don't (can't) have high speed cable to use. Especially shipping carriers and sea ports, people just fax over and they'll have a hard copy of the message/notice.
synicalx 9y ago
I genuinely have no idea how to even send a fax, never sent one or even seen one get sent in my entire life and I'm closer to 30 than I am to 20.
ac29 9y ago
> Does anyone still use faxes anywhere on the planet? Japan: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/world/asia/in-japan-the-fax-machine-is-anything-but-a-relic.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/world/asia/in-japan-the-fa...
ebro 9y ago
I work for a large bank and we send tens of thousands a day, mostly automated trade confirmations due to outdated regulations. It'll still be around for a few years yet.
stevekemp 9y ago
I'm in the middle of buying a flat, in Finland, and I had to fax my offer, such that they had a written record. (Well to be fair I could have posted my offer, or persuaded somebody to drive me to the realtors office, but both would have taken more time - and time is important when multiple people are bidding upon a property.)

fomojola 9y ago

Oddly enough, one of the drivers for building this was actually having to fax a signed doc for a background check (needed for an office lease) in early 2016. There are still a number of industries (for example, healthcare and insurance) where sometimes a fax is the fastest way to get the job done. Folks sometime just want to go with what works.

icelancer 9y ago

Yes. Deal with government and/or the medical industry and you'll be sending upwards of 100/month in a small business.

robbiemitchell 9y ago
Correct: HIPAA requires mail, fax, or secure web portal. And lots of doctors are small businesses without sophisticated IT investments. Lots of faxing.
- fencepost 9y ago
  I just recently learned about some stupid things going on at an oncology practice I work with - for new patients they receive faxed charts from other practices, and they're regularly 250+ pages. Even if we get them set up with some form of HIPAA-compliant secure file transfer service I'm not sure how well it'll work because while I can train and work with the people at that practice, there's not much I can do about the people sending them charts. Best thing I've come up with so far as a quick fix is setting up inbound faxing on their VOIP system with a pool of inbound lines - speed is slower, but they can receive multiple at once and none of them are tying up the main fax line for 3+ hours at a time.

waibelp 9y ago

Sure, try to deal with anything government related in Germany and they almost always ask for faxes. They may use email, too, but the addresses are like an onion address and it's not possible to correctly remember/write down such an email address when hearing it over the wire...

a012 9y ago

There are still many places that don't (can't) have high speed cable to use. Especially shipping carriers and sea ports, people just fax over and they'll have a hard copy of the message/notice.

synicalx 9y ago

I genuinely have no idea how to even send a fax, never sent one or even seen one get sent in my entire life and I'm closer to 30 than I am to 20.

ac29 9y ago

> Does anyone still use faxes anywhere on the planet? Japan: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/world/asia/in-japan-the-fax-machine-is-anything-but-a-relic.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/world/asia/in-japan-the-fa...

ebro 9y ago

I work for a large bank and we send tens of thousands a day, mostly automated trade confirmations due to outdated regulations. It'll still be around for a few years yet.

stevekemp 9y ago

I'm in the middle of buying a flat, in Finland, and I had to fax my offer, such that they had a written record. (Well to be fair I could have posted my offer, or persuaded somebody to drive me to the realtors office, but both would have taken more time - and time is important when multiple people are bidding upon a property.)