A mail delivery assistance system comprises a letterbox for receiving mail consignments that has an opening and an electronic locking mechanism, a data processing device that comprises a database having an address file in which a respective addressee is associated with a building address, and a reader for capturing mail consignment data of a mail consignment. The reader, during operation, is communicatively connected to the data processing device in order to send the mail consignment data to the data processing device. The data processing device checks whether the mail consignment data match an addressee in the address file, and, if this is the case, generates a control signal for the locking mechanism in order to open the opening and to allow delivery of the mail consignment.

Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for protecting personal data in digital and physical worlds in which the personal data of a networked computing system is used for physical world communications. Preauthorized permissions or rules of a computing system specify how personal data of a first user, as a user that will receive a mailer, can be used by a different, second user to communicate with the first user in the physical world by sending the first user a mailer. The mailer may be a greeting card is generated and includes personal data (such as recipient name and address) to be sent to the receiving user, but the sender is not provided with the receiving user's personal data such that the sending user may not know the receiving user's address or even the receiving user's real name.

A mail delivery assistance system comprises a letterbox for receiving mail consignments that has an opening and an electronic locking mechanism, a data processing device that comprises a database having an address file in which a respective addressee is associated with a building address, and a reader for capturing mail consignment data of a mail consignment. The reader, during operation, is communicatively connected to the data processing device in order to send the mail consignment data to the data processing device. The data processing device checks whether the mail consignment data match an addressee in the address file, and, if this is the case, generates a control signal for the locking mechanism in order to open the opening and to allow delivery of the mail consignment.