"Digital letter": Swiss Post emphasises protection against unauthorised access despite Google
Swiss Post defends the "digital letter" despite criticism of Google Cloud. Content is encrypted and can only be decrypted locally.
At the beginning of April, Swiss Post officially launched the «digital letter» for private individuals. You can receive or send letters digitally, and Swiss Post processes millions of items electronically. However, the technical infrastructure behind the service is causing controversy: several media reports revealed that Swiss Post relies on Google's cloud technology for this. Data protectionists then raised questions about access to the data and digital sovereignty.
Post: Content is encrypted
Swiss Post defends the use of the Google cloud in a statement. Swiss Post emphasises that all data is processed and stored in data centres in Switzerland. Although the infrastructure comes from Google Cloud, Google cannot access the content of the letters. The data is stored exclusively in encrypted form, and the key management runs separately from the cloud infrastructure via a system controlled by Swiss Post.
According to Swiss Post, it is precisely this separation that prevents Google from releasing readable content - even if US authorities were to request data based on the Cloud Act. The system architecture was also subject to a data protection impact assessment by the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) and reviewed by Postcom.
End-to-end encryption still not in place
The federal government demands that Swiss Post must also deliver digital letters physically if required. This is precisely why classic end-to-end encryption cannot be used, according to Swiss Post. If a recipient does not want digital delivery, the consignment must be printed out. To do this, Swiss Post temporarily decrypts the letter at the printing partner - not in the cloud, however, but locally in a separate infrastructure. The printing partners involved are certified and contractually bound by postal and telecommunications secrecy.
Swiss Post also points to technical and operational reasons for using a large cloud infrastructure. Processing large volumes of letters requires a highly scalable platform with high availability. Unlike e-voting, where comparatively small and predictable volumes of data are processed, the volume of letter traffic fluctuates greatly.
Digital delivery is growing
The «digital letter» is already being used extensively. Although there are no current figures, there were already 5.1 million processed consignments in 2025. According to Swiss Post, this corresponds to growth of more than 60 per cent compared to the previous year. The hybrid delivery system has officially been part of the universal service since the beginning of April.
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
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