On January 1, 2023, the red stamp will completely disappear from post offices. To send urgent mail, it will now be necessary to use a red e-Letter, a completely digital solution. But this change is not to everyone’s taste. Many users are concerned about the privacy of their mail.
We already announced it to you last July: the red stamp is destined to disappear by January 1, 2023. This does not mean that urgent mail will also disappear, although this only represents 4% of shipments in France, according to La Poste. The company has of course provided an alternative solution, entirely digital this time: the red e-Letter.
This new type of mail is part of La Poste’s effort to digitize its services, as also shown by the creation of the digital stamp in 2022. The red e-Letter is therefore, as its name suggests, an urgent digital mail which will be directly printed and enveloped at the place of destination. It will be possible to type the letter directly on the La Poste website, or to go to the post office with a paper letter.
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If at first glance this measure seems (finally) to adapt to its time, many are resistant to the red e-Letter. Starting with the Sud PTT union, whose petition in opposition to the end of the red stamp, which it believes will lead to layoffs and a greater digital divide in France, has collected 28,000 signatures. Another criticism formulated by the opponents: lack of confidentiality of such a method.
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Indeed, by scanning or printing the letter at the destination, employees will in theory be able to access its content. An accusation that La Poste denies, claiming that only authorized employees will be able to handle the red letters, and those, in front of the customers in the event that it will have to be scanned. The printing, on the other hand, will be carried out automatically by machiness in “secure, locked spaces”.
Note that printed mail will be immediately deleted from La Poste’s servers. Customers wishing to do so will be able to recover them for one year.
Source: BFM