If you do, you will probably give away the location of an aleph leading to your home territory. This is not good. Scan information is shared among everyone on the team so you will see anything the scout sees. As a result, you will be able to do a better job of picking your battles, preventing enemies from escaping, and knowing when enemy reinforcements are coming. Space stations have a significant scan range in their own right, meaning that they can serve as surrogate scouts in the sectors you control.
Scouts are also an excellent resource against bombers.
One scout in a sector can pretty much guarantees that any enemy bomber in the sector will be spotted. In addition, scouts can also drop probes which can spot a bomber from 1250 away. Sniper rifles are unique among the other weapons in that they only raise your signature a little bit when fired. Since the sniper rifle's range is 900, this has some interesting possibilities. Missiles are another weapon that can be fired while either cloaked or just too far away to be seen.