<p>Can I just send my packet to <a href="mailto:help@cssprofile.org">help@cssprofile.org</a> in a PDF file? My parents are afraid that our tax documents would get lost in the mail...Has anyone here ever attempted sending their IDOC packet electronically before?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Plenty of people have the same concern . . . and the topic of IDOC security has been discussed here at length. Unfortunately, IDOC packets must be sent by mail. Email is not an option.</p>
<p>From the IDOC coversheet:</p>
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<p>I agree that the IDOC system is ridiculous. Why have they not set up a secure server for uploading documents that would avoid the postal service entirely?</p>
<p>Apart from the security issue, IDOC gives a three week deadline (we were notified on February 5 for a March 1 response) while reserving a two-week delay for themselves. It is simply ridiculous.</p>
<p>Good grief your parents are concerned about security of their info and you want TO EMAIL THE INFO? You might as well send it on a postcard. </p>
<p>Email is NOT at all secure! People use mail to send tax returns to the IRS every day. Send the info by registered mail and be done with it.</p>
<p>Note that using registered mail will substantially DELAY the mail.</p>
<p>Iron Maiden - google e-mail encryption. Very common these days to e-mail or upload something encrypted to a secure website where it unencrypts.</p>
<p>Mom, trust me I am very aware of encryption. In my line if work I deal with data security every day. The OP was talking about sending the info in an open PDF to an unsecured email box. IDOC does not provide an encrypted mailbox. So your point is moot.</p>
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<p>Not accurate. Per the USPS for domestic mail: “Registered mail is a highly secure form of delivery that is documented at each step of the way. Registered mail is best for sending documents or items that have an intrinsic value, where security is important. Mail takes approximately one day longer than certified mail to arrive as it has to be accounted for at each step along the way. This mail is kept under lock and key during its journey.”</p>
<p>It takes substantially longer for international registered mail. I don’t call one day a substantial delay for domestic.</p>
<p>Actually I was mistaken when I referred to registered mail as I used certified last year.</p>
<p>You state that registered is only one day slower than certified, but certified mail is (or at least can be) also slower than standard priority mail. USPS states “Certified Mail items travel at the speed of the mail class with which they are purchased” but when our IDOC package (priority, certified) failed to show up as delivered for over two weeks last year, USPS told us that sending things certified “can” slow the package down. (Sending it registered would have made it more trackable, at least.) We finally re-sent the package, and then they both showed up within a day of one another.</p>
<p>Yup, IDOC is in the dark ages. The OP and parents were likely fooled, as I initially was, by the "I"DOC part of this. Unfortunately, it is a very paper intensive process with a ton of nit-picky rules. No choice, you must use snail mail.</p>
<p>I thought IDOC was bad until this year when I have a kid applying for med school. While one school uses Profile/IDOC, all the others use another FA program that does not utilize a clearinghouse for tax forms. I just got finished sending off several packets of tax forms to individual schools, more worry and money.</p>
<p>It isn’t like all schools use IDOC for undergrad, though. D2 has 8 schools she has applied to, and only 4 using IDOC. 
The guy at our post office commented the other day that he has seen a lot of me lately…</p>