Is your private information public?

As stated previously, if you are in the phone book, the data is widely available. Googling "white pages" should lead you to similar information. A "reverse lookup" is also offered and if you punch in the phone number, it will provide the name and address for those listed in phone books.

When changing home address, the postal service forwards all first class mail for one year. After that, it is returned to the sender for six months with the new address. The exception is on endorsements below the sender's name and address on the envelope.

There are several and each has different instructions. The mail can be forwarded and the mailer provided with the new address. In this case, the mail probably stated "address correction requested". The piece is returned to the sender with the new address. I believe these rules still exist since I left USPS a few years ago.

If you received mail on a person who moved in 1981, there is a simple explanation. The sender used that old address. The carrier may be new or cannot remember all who resided in that residence. The best policy if unknown is to "deliver as addressed". The person may be new to the household.

My carrier has had the route longer than we have lived on it and knows the names of all persons and dogs who live at my house. His swing man might not know. He may have a policy of delivering all first class mail (if he can't do anything else with it) rather than marking it "moved, not forwardable" or its modern equivalent. Anyway, a couple of times we have sought out the original owner, who is known to us and still lives in the area, to see if he wants something that came for him. I suppose that doing so is a federal offense.