Privacy‑minded folks: which is worse – family reading your mail or a service scanning it?

Questions
1

Hi all,

I’m someone who cares a lot about privacy and I’m a bit stuck on a very old‑school problem: physical mail when you don’t live where your “official” address is.

If you’re abroad or moving around, it often comes down to:

  • Letting family/friends handle your mail (and potentially read more than you’d like), or

  • Letting some third‑party setup receive and scan it for you.

From a privacy point of view, I’m honestly not sure which is “less bad”.

I’m curious how people here see it:

  • Which setup would you personally be more comfortable with, and why?

  • What would a third‑party mail‑scanning service have to do (or prove) for you to consider it at all – if ever?

I’m not looking for recommendations for specific services, more for how privacy‑focused people reason about this trade‑off.

2

You know your family so unless you’re in very bad terms or receiving some OnlyFans receipts/gifts at your old place, I wouldn’t let those be read by a 3rd party is my stance on it. :hugs:

2 Likes
3

Unless you are permanently changing your location, rent a postbox and read your posts once you came back.

If the post is important, sender will send it via sign on delivery, so your family can’t take it. If it is not important, then it can wait until you get back home.

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