The Risks of Gmail Fax Plugins

Fax machines are so antiquated that most people don't have access to one anymore. And yet, sometimes you still have to send a fax. This leads to a problem. Every day, people scramble to find Gmail Fax options to send faxes through their favorite email account. In their rush, they sometimes resort to installing plugins with questionable security policies. Although not all of them are dangerous, some of these plugins can be quite risky.

 

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Fax plugins promise to allow you to send a fax using your Gmail account. There are several options available in the Google Workspace Marketplace and Google Chrome plugin store. And it's true, some of them do allow you to send faxes from your email account. So what's the catch? Here are some of the risks involved.

 

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Privacy Concerns

If you are faxing a document in this day and age, odds are it contains sensitive information. Are you sure you want to route that information through a random third party's servers? You can't guarantee that they aren't keeping that information or distributing it to another party. In addition, you're giving this plugin access to your Gmail account. While permissions vary from one to another, you're conceding privacy forever to a service you might use once.

 

You could delete the plugin right away, but that doesn't change the fact that they now have your entire contact list and could have even looked into your emails. Even if you carefully read the terms and conditions (and who has time for that?) you should be wary of free fax plugins.

 

The Bait and Switch

Trusting plugins can wind up being a waste of time. Often, the “free” service is limited in functionality. For example, plugin FAX.PLUS advertises itself as a free fax service, but it won't allow you to receive a fax unless you pay. Similarly, you're limited to 10 pages outgoing until you hand over money. These limits are rarely communicated until after you install the plugin.

 

From that point on, be prepared to have your inbox bombarded with offers for upgrades and discounts on future faxing services. All you wanted to do was send a simple fax and now you're dealing with more spam and unwanted marketing.

 

Some Just Don't Work

Faxes tend to surprise most people now that they're practically obsolete. You just want to get it out of the way and move on. Many of these plugins are no longer working and could simply be collecting data instead of actually offering the service they promised. You install it, try it, find it doesn't work, and uninstall. But they got what they wanted.

 

Instead of trying out plugins like pairs of pants until you find one that fits, rely on a reputable service. We recommend RingCentral's virtual fax number service.

 

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