Safety When You Live Alone · Lesson 3 of 8 · 10 min

Keeping your address private offline

Your address leaks out in more ways than social media: bins, parcels, public registers and delivery notes. Living alone, it is worth knowing who can find out where you live.

Why it matters

Your name and address together are valuable to fraudsters. Action Fraud reports callers who knew victims' full names, addresses and council tax reference numbers, possibly taken from blue recycling bins.
If you live alone, you may also simply prefer that people you meet casually do not know exactly where you sleep.
The Personal Safety module covers location tags and posting online. This lesson covers the offline leaks that people forget.

Paper and bins

Action Fraud advises shredding documents that contain your name, address, billing information or customer account numbers before you throw them away.
Action Fraud warns against putting letters with personal information in your bins without shredding them.
A cheap cross-cut shredder, or tearing documents into small pieces and splitting them between different bags, is better than nothing.
Peel or black out address labels on parcel boxes and envelopes before recycling them.
Keep important letters in a folder indoors (see the Bills and Paperwork modules on what to keep).

Public registers (UK)

In the UK, the electoral register has two versions. GOV.UK explains that anyone can buy a copy of the open register.
You can opt out of the open register through the register to vote service or your local electoral registration office.
Opting out does not affect your right to vote: your details stay on the full register, which is used for elections (GOV.UK).
When you register to vote at university, tick the box to opt out of the open register if you prefer privacy.

Deliveries and visitors

In shared buildings, ask couriers to leave parcels with reception or building security where possible, so you do not need to share your flat number with every app.
Use a nickname or first name only on food delivery apps if the app allows it, and keep notes for the driver about the building, not about you being home alone.
When booking a taxi or ride-hailing late at night, you can set the pick-up or drop-off at the building entrance rather than your exact flat.
Be careful who you tell when you will be away for a long holiday. Aston Students' Union suggests taking valuables with you or leaving them with trusted people.

Who should know your address

People who should have it: your family, your university or accommodation office, your doctor, your bank and your employer.
People who usually do not need it: someone you met once, an online seller (use a collection point where available), or a group chat with people you do not know well.
If someone you do not trust already knows where you live and you feel unsafe, talk to your accommodation office or the police.

Practise in real life

Tick each one off when you have done it.

Collect any old letters and parcel labels in your room and shred or destroy them.
If you are registered to vote in the UK, check whether you are on the open register and opt out if you want to.
Review the name and delivery notes on your food and parcel apps.

Remember

Shred anything with your name, address or account numbers.
Remove address labels before recycling boxes.
In the UK, you can opt out of the open register and still vote.
Share your full address only with people and organisations that need it.

Note: The open register exists in the UK only; other countries have different public records. The delivery and ride-hailing tips are general good practice rather than taken from one official source.

Check yourself

1. What does Action Fraud advise you to do with letters showing your name, address and account numbers?

2. In the UK, who can buy a copy of the open register?

3. If you opt out of the open register, what happens to your right to vote?

4. Which of these is the safest habit with an empty parcel box?

5. Which of these people or organisations most clearly needs your full home address?