I live in a residential complex where outsiders aren't allowed unless absolutely necessary. While this has no problems for movement of residents, delivery persons are regularly lined up at main gate because they can't enter. The standard protocol for us is to walk to the main gate and collect our items. This can take anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes depending on which tower and flat you live in. Thankfully, we have a better way out for delivery persons, who have a lot of deliveries to do and are often tightly tracked by their employer. They can simply drop items at security and leave .That is the protocol. Most of us share the OPT/PIN over phone and the delivery persons drops our items at main gate with security. We then collect it whenever we happen to go out. It works for both parties and of course, needs 2 way trust. Thankfully that trust hasn't yet been breached. The delivery OTP/PIN is ideally not meant to be shared over phone, but we do it anyways, despite it being a "proof" that only the intended person received the package. But the interesting part starts somewhere else. The state run India Post also has a way to ensure only the intended person received the package. And that mechanism is a hand drawn signature on an A4 sheet. Prima facie, this feels very insecure. Anyone can draw a signature and receive the package. Since the postal service doesn't collect any "original" signature samples, they have no way of verifying whether the recipient signature matches the intended one or not. An OPT/PIN on the other hand ensures that deliveries happen only with SOME participation of recipient even if they may not be physically present. A signature by design ensures that receiver was actually there and accepted said package. Except, one is ridiculously easy to bypass. Today I happened to receive and item sent via India Post. I wasn't at my residence so asked the delivery person (on phone) to drop it with security. But he said he wouldn't because he needed my signature. I offered to come at the post office at a later hour to sign and collect my article. But he was unsure of him being available when I arrived. Thankfully, soon we struck a solution. He would sign with my name and drop my article with the security. Its comforting to see understanding people who are willing to let go of some un-needed rigidity in order to make things easy. But the next moment, I wondered exactly what I've written above. The signature system is not foolproof. Even the OTP/PIN system isn't perfect, but signature verification achieves exactly nothing. A postman with nefarious intent can easily ensure my article don't reach me. The OTP/PIN system while not perfect, at the very least ensures that a delivery can me backed successfully only after communication with intended recipient - whether in person or on the call. I'll collect my items later today, but wonder, how processes often fail to optimize for the actual real world scenario.