Is paper mail secure?

The sealed envelope is one of the oldest and most effective security measures for written communication. Once sealed, the only way to access the contents is to tear or steam open the envelope, which leaves visible evidence of tampering.

This is not just a tradition. It is a legal distinction. In the United States and most countries, mail tampering is a federal offense. Opening someone else's sealed mail is a crime, which creates a strong disincentive against casual snooping.

The physical seal provides something digital communication often lacks: a clear chain of custody with visible evidence if broken. When you receive a sealed letter, you can be reasonably confident that no one read it between sending and arrival, unless the seal is visibly disturbed.

This security property is why sealed letters are still used for legal notices, formal communications, and anything where you want a record of delivery without intermediate parties reading the content.

While the seal protects the content inside, the envelope exterior is visible to everyone who handles the letter. This includes the recipient address, the return address if you include one, and any stamps or postage marks.

Anyone who sees the envelope knows that you sent mail to that address. Postal workers, sorting facility staff, and the recipient all see this information. If you live in an apartment building or shared housing, housemates may see mail arrive.

For most mail, this is fine. You are not trying to hide the fact that you sent something. But if the mere fact of correspondence is sensitive, say you are sending to a lawyer, a medical provider, or a controversial organization, the envelope reveals that connection even if the content remains sealed.

This is an inherent property of addressed mail and applies equally to traditional DIY mail and online letter services. The destination must be visible for delivery to work.

Between sending and delivery, your letter passes through multiple handling points. It is collected from a mailbox or post office, sorted at local and regional facilities, transported to the destination region, sorted again, and finally delivered by a carrier to the recipient's mailbox.

Each handling point is a potential vulnerability, but in practice the postal system is remarkably reliable. Millions of letters move through it daily, and the vast majority arrive without incident. Workers are trained, processes are systematic, and tampering is rare.

The most common security failures are not tampering but misdelivery. A wrong address, a missing apartment number, or similar mail going to a neighbor. Address accuracy is the single most important factor in ensuring your letter reaches the right person.

Theft from mailboxes is another real but relatively uncommon risk. Unlocked community mailboxes, apartments with shared mail areas, and rural roadside boxes can all be vulnerable. Recipients concerned about theft can use PO boxes or locked mailboxes.

When you send mail through an online service like MappyMail, your letter exists as a digital file before it becomes a physical letter. You type it in an editor or upload a PDF. That file is transmitted to servers, stored temporarily, sent to printing systems, and then deleted.

This digital window introduces questions that do not apply to traditional mail. How is the file transmitted? Who has access to the servers? How long is the file stored? Is it encrypted? Different services handle these questions differently.

The key security considerations are minimizing what data is collected, limiting how long data is stored, and ensuring the data is deleted after use. Services that require accounts and store letter history create larger data footprints than services that process letters without accounts and delete files immediately after printing.

MappyMail is designed to minimize data collection. No account is required to send a letter, which means less personal information is collected and stored. The PDF used for printing is deleted after the letter enters the mail stream, so your letter content does not persist on MappyMail servers.

Traditional DIY mail keeps your letter entirely in your hands until you drop it in a mailbox. You control the paper, the printer, the envelope, the sealing. There is no digital file on a third-party server.

This feels more secure, and in some ways it is. There is no data transmission vulnerability because no data is transmitted. There is no server storage concern because no server is involved. Your letter goes directly from your hands into the postal system.

However, DIY mail has its own vulnerabilities. Your home printer stores document data. If you typed the letter on a computer, it exists in your file system and potentially in cloud backups. Drafts may sit in email or document folders. The physical letter sits in your outgoing mail until you actually drop it off.

Online services add the digital transmission step but may actually handle files more securely than a home computer, with automatic deletion policies and dedicated security infrastructure. The comparison is nuanced rather than one-sided.

When you pay for online mail, you are providing payment information to a web service. This is the same as any online purchase: security depends on how the service handles payments.

Reputable services use established payment processors like Stripe, which are specialized in secure payment handling. These processors are PCI compliant, meaning they meet industry standards for protecting card data. Your card number goes to the processor, not to the mail service's own servers.

MappyMail uses Stripe for payment processing, which means payment data is handled by one of the most widely trusted payment processors in the industry. MappyMail receives confirmation that payment succeeded but does not store your full card details.

Mobile wallet options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and Cash App Pay add additional security layers. These services use tokenization so your actual card number is never transmitted to the merchant.

Regardless of whether you mail traditionally or online, some basic practices improve security. First, verify the address before sending. An accurate address is the best protection against misdelivery. If your letter goes to the wrong mailbox, someone else opens it.

Second, consider what you put in the letter. Avoid including sensitive information like account numbers, passwords, or Social Security numbers unless absolutely necessary. If the letter is opened or misdelivered, that information is exposed.

Third, use a return address if you want undeliverable mail returned to you. This trades some anonymity for the security of knowing a failed delivery comes back rather than sitting in a dead letter pile or being opened by someone investigating what to do with it.

Fourth, for truly sensitive documents, consider certified mail with return receipt, which provides tracking and proof of delivery. This is overkill for most routine mail but appropriate for legal notices and high-value documents.

Standard first-class mail is sufficient for the vast majority of correspondence. But some situations warrant additional precautions.

For documents requiring proof of delivery, certified mail or registered mail provides tracking and recipient signature confirmation. This is common for legal notices, dispute letters, and anything where you need to prove the recipient received it.

For extremely sensitive documents, some senders choose courier services that provide chain-of-custody tracking from pickup to delivery. This is expensive and usually unnecessary, but it exists for situations where nothing less will do.

For highly confidential information, in-person delivery may be the most secure option. There is no substitute for handing something directly to the intended recipient. But for routine mail and most formal correspondence, standard sealed mail with accurate addressing is secure enough.