How address sharing works on Letter Trails

The hardest part of pen palling has always been the paradox at its core: a stranger cannot become a friend without eventually knowing where to send the letter, but you should not have to hand your home address to a stranger. Letter Trails is built around one answer to that paradox, and it is worth explaining exactly how it works.

Sealed by default

When you join, your mailing address is encrypted before it is stored, using the same class of encryption banks use (AES-256-GCM), with the key kept outside the database entirely. Nobody browsing Letter Trails can see it. Your friends cannot see it. It does not appear on your profile, in the directory, or anywhere else. As far as the platform's public surface is concerned, your address does not exist.

The same treatment applies to your phone number, which is entirely optional and works identically.

The two-key rule

Revealing happens per friendship, and it requires both people.

On every friendship page there is a small panel with two switches, one for each of you. Your friend's address appears to you only when both switches are on. One switch alone reveals nothing to anyone. Think of it like a safe deposit box that needs two keys turned at the same time.

A few properties fall out of this design:

• You cannot be surprised. Nothing you receive, click, or approve can expose your address unless you yourself turned sharing on for that specific friendship.
• It is per friend. Sharing with one pen pal reveals nothing to any other. Each friendship has its own pair of switches.
• Either side can revoke, instantly. Turn your switch off and your address disappears from your friend's view at that moment. No negotiation required.
• Every reveal and revoke is recorded, so there is always an answer to "who could see this, and when."

What we recommend

You do not need to share your home address at all to be a great pen pal. Many writers use a PO box or Poste Restante as their receiving address, which costs little or nothing and keeps home entirely out of the picture. Whatever address you store, share it only when the correspondence has earned it, and remember that revoking is always one click away.

If someone pressures you to share early, that is a signal. Every profile has a block and report option, and blocking someone ends the friendship and revokes all sharing automatically.

Where to find it

• Your address and phone number live in your account under the Address tab, editable anytime.
• The sharing switches live on each friendship page under "Private exchange."
• Once addresses are unlocked, you can log the letters you send and watch the miles add up.

Ready to try it? Join Letter Trails and your address stays sealed until you say otherwise.