DATA SAFETY: Postal workers scan the QR code label on a package to view the recipient’s address
Thai national postal service Thailand Post is to launch a Digital Post ID service that will enable customers to address a letter or parcel with a QR code label rather than revealing the sender and recipient’s personal details by writing or printing them on the envelope or packaging.
The digital location information accessed by staff scanning the QR code will also allow them to identify and locate delivery addresses more accurately and will incorporate vertical coordinates for addresses in tall buildings.
Senders will be able to access the service at post offices and logistics providers equipped with QR code label printers, and they “can be confident that their personal data will not leak”, Thailand Post says. “Only the names of receivers are shown on packages.”
The system can also use the QR codes as an abstraction layer, allowing mail to be redirected in the background. “One person now can have multiple addresses and the delivery location can be changed in the system when the person travels to different places,” said Dhanant Subhadrabandhu, chief executive of Thailand Post.
The postal service plans to introduce the service in the second quarter of 2023 and says that it “can also be leveraged to support other activities, such as delivery routing, fraud prevention, integration into financial services and a future unmanned vehicle transport system” as well as urban planning, natural resource management, tourism, agricultural planning and healthcare, according to a Bangkok Post report
Thailand Post uses QR codes to deliver secure digital addresses for letters and parcels was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.