Submitted by __0 in security_culture

Is there something equivalent to an onion router for sending parcel mail anonymously, would such a thing even be possible? I can see there being a problem of not being able to confirm if a package was lost or never sent at all, Would something like an open sneakernet ever be a thing?

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throwaway wrote (edited )

This has been discussed before, both on the dark web and some clear-web forums.

Right now, your best bet is either going for General Delivery if you're using USPS, although that doesn't hide your name, using a PO box or having it mailed to a trusted friend.

An optimal system would be one where both parties communicated through a platform and had a shared secret generated and associated with their identities, which were encrypted and stored. The package could then be delivered to a pickup point, where the identity could only be verified against the encrypted details, and not reversed (there's plenty of cryptographic tools for something like this, ala PGP).

Turns out that a system like this is, although practically not very challenging, almost impossible to put in place, mostly because no existing postal company would want to support such a thing for fear of illegal dark web deliveries and such.

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__0 OP wrote

The thing is a person participating in running infrastructure for such a network would have an enormous legal liability; with digital information what is being sent over the network can be encrypted and obfuscated, the same can not as easily be said about a physical network. Such a network would be most secure if an unenforceable amount of people were operating it and if it was used for legitimate non-illicit purposes. I can imagine delivering to a user account and having physical locations that are mirrored by digital nodes would be a good start.

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