this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2026
23 points (92.6% liked)
Privacy
51258 readers
432 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Post Office Boxes are the solution.
In my experience, when I went online to rent a PO box, they force you to create an account and asks for a bunch of invasive information anyways including my address, so I gave up on that idea for now.
Maybe it's dependent on the post office. Maybe I just need to go in-person and maybe they'll ask less info of me?
Isn't the PO box merely to hide your identity from the seller rather than the post office? Not casting doubt on your approach though, just curious if there was anything more to be aware of since I too am thinking about signing up for a PO box.
Correct, the seller wouldn't know, I'm just saying that that data now goes to UPS or whoever your PO box provider is instead of the website you're purchasing from
Yeah, if you want to receive packages that's kind of necessary. Someone has to own the place where the drop happens. Whether that's a separate piece of land, an apartment complex mailroom, or a simple PO box. If it's not coming to you directly, then there is an owner of where it is going and that owner has to know who the package is meant for so they don't allow anyone else to take it. Can't have both a fully secure and fully private location. Some person or company has to secure it for the owner or everyone has to have access and thus ability to steal it.
The fucking USPS already have your address dude.
No duh bro. More than one person can live at a house though. So USPS knows who owns the house like you said, but not anyone extra unless that data is given to them, like for example when you create an account and include that you ALSO live at an address as the owner.
Moreover, if you read USPS privacy policy, they use Google Analytics, so guess what? Anything you do on USPS also goes to Google. They also allow tracking pixels from meta, LinkedIn, and several other companies.
So no, it's not just "the fucking USPS already has your address dude", it's that several other companies also are getting that data when they dont need to be. That's literally the whole point of this forum and the data I provided above is relevant. All I'm saying is if someone wants a PO box, it's not as private as one may assume. The seller you're buying from won't know your address, but tons of tech companies will.
I honestly hate people like you. Learn to be more curious and ask questions instead of trying to be a smart ass. You could have asked "But why worry that USPS already has your address, aren't they literally a delivery company?" That's a completely valid question, yet you chose to be a dick. Go fuck yourself.
Opening a PO Box in person should avoid this issue.
So, I went and fucked myself first like you asked. Was nice BTW, great suggestion, thanks.