Is it safe? Yes.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no evidence that mail can transmit COVID-19; WHO reports that this virus does not survive long on objects such as letters or packages.
And per the USPS (United States Postal Service) Statement on Coronavirus, “The United States Postal Service has a dedicated COVID-19 Command Response leadership team that is focusing on employee, operational, business, and customer continuity during this unprecedented epidemic. [They] continue to follow the strategies and measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and public health departments. The CDC has information available on its website at https://www.coronavirus.gov that provides the latest information about COVID-19.” (Full statement / more on the USPS response is here.)
Is it Private? Mostly.
Every community member is authenticated through a valid Facebook account and email address, so as to nearly guarantee real connections with real participants.
Each Quarantine Connection involves three participants, where each person acts as both recipient and letter-writer, but for two different community members. You initiate by writing to someone whose first name, mailing address, biography, and letter request you see. You don’t get any other information about them, and they can only see your return address (or other information) if you include that with your letter. They will have already approved you as their letter-writer, based only on your name, bio, and Facebook photo (no other information is given to them).
Once you send your letter to that other community member, you will see your first eligible “match” in our system – someone who could write a letter to you. You only see their Facebook name and picture, and the bio they have included. You don’t get their mailing address or any other information.
You can decline as many potential matches as you like, and only if and when you approve of a specific participant, do they get your first name and mailing address, bio and letter request.
No one ever gets an email address, and only partial information is shared as necessary for the connections to play out, per above.
If you are uncomfortable with any part of this, you need not participate, and can opt out or stop the process at any time.