It’s official: The Bundesrat, Germany’s federal council, has declared it’s time to hang up on the fax machine. Starting October, for submissions to be legally recognized, you can ditch the dial-up tones in favor of emails and digital files. According to Florian Stegmann, the head of the Baden-Württemberg State Chancellery, this is nothing short of an ‘epochal change.’ Imagine that — an epoch marked not by the events that shaped humanity, but by how we send documents!
While many cheered this digital leap forward, the echo from the tech-savvy crowd suggests a missed call on open standards. Engineer Johannes Eckstein pointed out a crack in this foundation — reliance on Microsoft Word formats over universally embracing the OpenDocument Format. It’s like moving from VHS directly to Blu-ray and skipping DVDs altogether. Sure, it’s an upgrade, but have we really future-proofed our tech?
In Bavaria, Minister of State for Digital Affairs, Fabian Mehring, sounds as though he’s ready to leave all forms of dated tech on ‘read’. Meanwhile, the former Thuringian Data Protection Commissioner, Lutz Hasse, suggests that faxes are about as secure as sending your secrets via carrier pigeon when it comes to sensitive data. Faxes might still ring in the hallways of justice and emergency services, but for how long?
So, as Germany slowly disconnects its faxes, one can’t help but chuckle at the persistence of such charming technology. Is it nostalgia or necessity that keeps these machines beeping and screeching in the corner of some dusty office? Maybe it’s a bit of both. Nevertheless, as we fax off to an old friend, let’s keep our signals crossed for a future where technology meets practicality with a hint of sentimentality.