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  • abadidea0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange
    Nov 11, 2026, 1:55 PM

    It has been 0️⃣ days since I saw someone post an image where they had covered up their address on a package but not covered up the barcode underneath

    So here's your safety reminder: always, always, ALWAYS censor any barcodes on mail and packages when photographing them! It is often your address or something very close to your address (such as your street). Barcodes may be printed very faintly or in fluorescent ink; double-check before assuming one isn't there, and cover it no matter how faint it seems! If it's a bunch of lines of any kind, it's a barcode!

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  • Bruno Girinbrunogirin@mastodon.me.uk
    Nov 11, 2026, 1:59 PM

    @0xabad1dea e.g. the little faint pink lines at the bottom of an envelope in the UK are a barcode that identifies the recipient's delivery office and is used by the Royal Mail automated sorting machines.

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  • Avraclayote@peoplemaking.games
    Nov 11, 2026, 2:16 PM

    @0xabad1dea Is there some known best practice for concealing the location a picture was taken from GeoSpy type services? Maybe a whole-screen filter?

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  • abadidea0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange
    Nov 11, 2026, 2:22 PM

    @clayote I'm afraid you should either aggressively crop the picture to reduce background context or just not post it at all, if this is a concern. It's possible to mess with AI vision but it's on a very case-by-case basis of knowing exactly which model you're trying to fool, there's no general long-term solution that yet leaves a human-legible photo.

    I accept that anyone who scrapes together several photos of my dog outside can definitely identify my neighborhood; I also say plenty of things online that imply where I live within a block or so. But I'd rather not my exact mailing address be trivially searched up by weirdos, and that's easier to control

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  • Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UKvfrmedia@social.tchncs.de
    Nov 11, 2026, 3:34 PM

    @0xabad1dea @clayote

    A UV torch is useful to investigate packages for fluorescent ink..

    In areas where its safe for a cat to be outdoor or semi-outdoor, a roaming cat creates entropy of about 0,5-1 km (there are people like me who befriend random cats in the neighbourhood and photograph them but don't have cats of their own).

    A dog usually has an owner, but as its walked regularly that also creates entropy..

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  • ModernMaslowModernMaslow@techhub.social
    Nov 11, 2026, 2:29 PM

    @0xabad1dea And while numerical data appearing on earlier versions of mass mailings were more innocuous; it's now wise to remove them from potential data mining and/or criminal abuse.

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  • George Bgbargoud@masto.nyc
    Nov 11, 2026, 3:03 PM

    @0xabad1dea

    Also it's mostly common knowledge by now but key teeth should always be concealed too

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  • GeneralX ⏳generalx@freeradical.zone
    Nov 11, 2026, 3:54 PM

    @0xabad1dea
    Great little-known anti-OSINT tip. This applies to US mail as well.

    We have the Intelligent Mail barcode which encodes sender information as well as a zip+4 (street level geocode) or zip+6 (delivery point/exact mail recipient) info.

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  • Juliettejrf_nl@phpc.social
    Nov 11, 2026, 3:56 PM

    @0xabad1dea Along the same lines: don't ever just throw away boarding passes or the labels printed for your luggage. Take them home and put them through the shredder. Those contain way too much personal info too hidden in bar/QR codes.

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