This morning on CNN there was a report by Clark Howard about a new service that is being tested in a San Francisco for a mail concierge service. The service is called OutBox. The premise is this – when you are away from home you want to be able to get your paper bills and important mail on time. Also, because of concerns about mail theft, identity theft, nosy neighbors, etc. when you are away from home there is a person hired to collect your mail for you.
What happens next is what makes me uneasy. After they go to your house or P.O. Box to collect your mail the OutBox service opens all your mail, scans it and emails it to you. Sounds great, but what keeps the OutBox employee from being a total puke. And what happens to the mail after it is emailed to you? Do they keep it and deliver it to you after you get home? Do they shred it immediately? How bout the digital files that are created that have all your personal, pertinent ID forming information in them? How long do they hang on to those and how secure is the system holding them? Seriously, if we have to worry about Fortune 500 companies and large banks getting hacked and having our identities stolen wouldn’t it be that much easier for your info to be stolen from a smaller company with fewer resources?
Like I said before I’m somewhat of a worst-case-scenario kind of gal.
What do you think about this kind of service? If it were available in your area would you take advantage of it?
See what these people think:
Does Outbox’s snail mail alternative solve a problem — or just create one?
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/04/does-outboxs-snail-mail-alternative-solve-a-problem-or-just-create-one/#GK5eRFv21UA7Q9C7.99
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/28/4039990/the-postal-service-is-bad-but-outbox-is-worse
photo credit: photobunny via photopin cc
Firstly, I’m a mom and wife. Professionally, IT consulting is my job and blogging is the outlet for my passions. I write about things that affect the everyday life of a stay-at-home parent or any parent for that matter such as parenting, relationships, discipline, the media, product reviews, giveaways, social media, food, cooking, gardening and anything else that might come my way.
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