How to Fax Documents Securely

Knowing how to fax documents correctly is extremely important, especially when your job or personal life demands that you send documents in the most secure way possible. For instance, many offices will not allow employees to send social security numbers or other sensitive information by email, but they will allow the information to be sent by fax. I use this same rule in my personal life; I fax all of my sensitive information, and email frivolous information. The fax machine is an important tool in your fight to keep sensitive information from the prying eyes of other people.

Instructions

1. Call the recipient first to ask if the information that you are about to fax will be secure once it reaches their fax machine. The privacy afforded by a fax machine goes out the window if the wrong person receives the information on the other end!

2. Create a coversheet. The coversheet is important in helping to get your document to the intended recipient more directly. If a secretary picks up your document when it comes out of the fax machine, he or she can just look at the coversheet and not have to read through your sensitive documents in order to decide where they should be delivered.

3. Once you dial the fax number into your fax machine, stand by the fax and remove your document after it is finished sending. This step is simple, but important; it is easy to walk away from the fax when it is sending and forget that you left the document behind. If this happens, someone can easily walk by and pick up your sensitive documents.

Tips & Warnings

• Step three is also important because it allows you to watch each of the pages feed into the machine. Often, fax machines will pick two pages at a time, and your document will be only partially sent.