Swap safely

A little mystery is fun. Your personal information shouldn't be.

Here's how we keep OohWhat exchanges safer — and what we ask you to do too.

Keep personal information private

Never include unnecessary personal information in your profile, item description, photos or public posts.

In particular, don't publicly share:

• Your home address
• Someone else's address
• Phone numbers
• Personal email addresses
• Tracking information
• Screenshots containing delivery details

Remember to check the background of photos before uploading or posting them online — labels, letters and parcels can accidentally reveal an address.

How we handle your delivery address

Your address is never displayed publicly or shown on your OohWhat profile.

Once matching takes place, only the person assigned to send your creation can access the delivery details they need.

They should use those details solely to complete the exchange.

Keep everything inside OohWhat

Use your OohWhat dashboard to record each stage of your exchange.

When you send your parcel:

• Mark it as Sent
• Select the postal/courier service
• Add the tracking or postage reference
• Confirm the date you posted it

When yours arrives, mark it as Received.

Keeping these updates inside OohWhat means we can see what's happening if something goes wrong.

Don't rely only on Instagram DMs, emails or conversations outside the platform as proof that something was sent.

Use tracked postage

We strongly recommend using tracked postage whenever practical.

Tracking protects both sides of the exchange and makes it much easier to understand what happened if a parcel is delayed or goes missing.

Keep your receipt or proof of postage until the exchange has been completed.

Your tracking number should be entered directly into OohWhat rather than posted publicly.

Don't contact your recipient unnecessarily

Part of OohWhat is sending something to someone you don't already know.

Receiving someone's name and address for postage does not give permission to contact them elsewhere.

Don't:

• Search for or contact them through personal accounts
• Add their details to mailing lists
• Send them marketing afterwards
• Use their address for anything other than the assigned parcel

If something needs sorting out, contact OohWhat, not the other participant.

Check before you post

Before sealing your parcel:

• Make sure the address matches the one shown in OohWhat
• Package the creation securely
• Remove any old labels or barcodes from reused packaging
• Make sure nothing prohibited or unsafe has accidentally been included
• Check that any personal note contains only information you're comfortable sharing

Once you're happy, seal it, send it and update OohWhat.