The biggest advantage with online fax is encryption. You can encrypt your fax messages so that only you and the receiver can view them and no third party can read them.
There is no denying that the one question most users are obsessed with is - how secure is online faxing? But the simple answer is online faxing is much more secure than regular faxing from the old traditional fax machine located in your office.
Whether you deal with sensitive financial data,
patient health information, judicial papers or any other privileged information- it is critically important that the contents of your fax messages are fully protected and secrecy maintained.
Security is not merely protecting information from loss but it is also the ability to make your fax messages inaccessible except to the right people in the right place at the right time.
Encrypted fax messages may only be viewed through the use of password. You have therefore full control in creating and changing the password at anytime for the encrypted faxes arriving to your account.
Many internet fax service providers use SSL and PGP encryption. Several email service providers comply with such privacy regulations as Gramm-Leach-Bliley & HIPAA in the United States and PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) in Canada.
Besides, you can delete any sensitive fax messages once you have read them. If need be, you can securely store your important faxes in your online account - should you need them for future reference. Contrast this with the old traditional fax machine located in your office where many employees can read your faxes.
With a traditional faxing, it is not practicable to keep standing around the fax machine all the time waiting for a document to arrive. But, leaving the machine unattended makes your sensitive documents vulnerable to prying eyes. With Internet Fax, you can be sure that important files will be sent to your very own password-protected email or the provider’s web account.
The greatest blessing of Internet fax is you can rest assured that no human interaction takes place while your faxes are being sent and no documents are left behind on your machine.
It is common knowledge that most computer systems are cracked by fraudsters and those with evil intention. So like any sensitive files you have on your computer, it is prudent to store your fax messages securely by using an encryption program to make them inaccessible to the surfing public.
To ensure total security, you should check out with Internet fax service provider before you sign up. Ask the provider what specific encryption measures they have in place to protect your privacy. Make sure to cross check the track record of your fax service provider to satisfy that there has not been any major privacy/security issues with their existing or past clients.
There are several reputed and reliable online fax service providers and hence the security of your faxes should no longer be a major concern. None the less, make sure that your faxes are quickly deleted and/or stored in encrypted form, both on your computer and in your online fax account.