A ghost address is an address that you can use to receive mail and packages at that is not your physical address.  Why would  you want one, how do you get a ghost address and what are the benefits?  Read on to find out more.

The first time I came across the term “ghost address” was in JJ Luna’s excellent book How to Be Invisible, available here.  He writes in detail about different options for ghost addresses, including paying a small business to take your mail.  Another more common term is “virtual address” or “virtual office”.  These terms emphasise business convenience over the privacy aspects but the principle is the same – you get a street address which is actually a mail forwarding service.

Why would you want a ghost address?  Well, primarily for privacy, but also if you want to run a business from home, but don’t want people turning up there.  Also, you may travel around and want a fixed location to receive mail. You can even be in another country.  This is useful if you want a street location in one country but actually reside in another.

The privacy principle is disconnecting your home from your mailing address so that snoops can’t use it to track you down.  For example, you may be able to register your car through a ghost address (you can’t in my state) and prevent a criminal with access to car registration details coming to your house over a supposed traffic incident.  As a general principle, it is best to maintain details of your personal life private in order to stay off the radar of anyway who wants to pry into your business or track you down.

The easiest way to get a ghost address (not a post office box) is to use a mail forwarding service.  These places receive your mail and can either scan it and forward to an email address, or physically send it to another address.  You can also use them to receive packages which is useful if you are not at home and don’t want them delivered to work, or if a firm won’t deliver outside of a particular country.  You can Google for terms like “virtual office” or “mail forwarding” to find online services.

Other ways are to find a small business that is willing to receive your mail and let you pick it up, and JJ Luna even talks about someone who rented a broom closet and put a post slot in the door for mail.

Whichever way you get your ghost address, I’m sure that you will find it a useful adjunct to your privacy.

Tags: freedom, Privacy, subversive

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 27th, 2010 at 11:23 am and is filed under Daily subversive tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.