Secure Shipping
Physical delivery is where digital anonymity meets the real world. The goal is to break the link between where a package arrives and who you are ā every tip below serves that principle.
Tips
- Use a secure drop address
- Encrypt shipping details with PGP
- Never sign for packages
- Maintain plausible deniability
Encrypt shipping details with PGP means only the vendor's PGP-encrypted copy of your address ever exists. Send the address encrypted to the vendor's public key ā never in plaintext chat. The decrypted address should reach only the vendor's private key, not sit readable in a support ticket or order note field. See the PGP Encryption Guide for how to encrypt a message.
What a "Secure Drop Address" Actually Means
A secure drop address is any delivery point that breaks the link between "where the package physically arrives" and "who you are" ā not a specific address type that is magically safe.
Your home address and workplace, tied to your legal identity, fail this test immediately. Options people actually use include:
- Rented mailbox or PO box not registered in your name ā breaks the direct home-to-identity link, though the rental itself may create a paper trail depending on how it was set up
- Vacant or abandoned property ā sometimes used, but carries real legal and practical risk (trespassing charges, packages left visible to neighbors, no reliable retrieval)
No option eliminates risk entirely. The underlying principle is separation: the person who ordered the package should not be the same person whose name and address appear on the delivery record.
Why Never Sign for a Package
A signature ā or showing ID to a carrier at the door ā creates a direct evidentiary link between your legal identity and that specific package at that specific address and time. This is the single biggest reason law-enforcement package-interception cases succeed: the prosecution can show you personally accepted delivery.
Choose a delivery method that does not require ID verification or signature confirmation. If you use a drop address to separate your identity from the delivery point, signing at the door undoes the entire point of the drop.
Plausible deniability follows from the same logic: you want to be in a position where you cannot be tied to the contents of a package that arrived at an address you do not personally control or sign for.