I had thought for quite a while that the USPS tracked every piece of mail, with those little stick on bar codes. Now it confirm that they take pictures of each piece of mail. I repeat: They take pictures of our mail. There is no privacy. Ever.
Everything is documented.
Everything.
We continue the march to becoming the least free country in the history of man
And the post office would still shrug when the delivery confirmed packages are scanned as “delivered” at 2am and yet they never make it to my home.
Imaging of each piece of mail is how electronic sorting machines work.
Post office has been photographing every piece of mail for awhile now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/us/postal-service-confirms-photographing-all-us-mail.html
Postal Service Confirms Photographing All U.S. Mail
By RON NIXONAUG. 2, 2013
That’s why, whenever possible, I don’t place my return address info on the outside of an outgoing mailpiece.
from that NYet Times article (2013, in Obama’s America):
“The Postal Service on Friday confirmed that it takes a photograph of every letter and package mailed in the United States — about 160 billion pieces last year — and occasionally provides the photos to law enforcement agencies that request them as part of criminal cases.”
Our mail is stolen before you get it here in Los Angeles. People follow UPS trucks around and steal the boxes before the recipient picks it up.
Another tool to track who you correspond with. They are looking to log who receives mail from conservative entities such as the NRA.
Every mail day about 9am I receive an email with images of the mail that is on its way to me for that day or the next using their system.
>I had thought for quite a while that the USPS tracked every piece of mail, with those little stick on bar codes. Now it confirm that they take pictures of each piece of mail. I repeat: They take pictures of our mail. There is no privacy. Ever.
They’ve been doing it for 30 years for sorting purposes. It’s how they determine the addresses and then route the mail properly.
They have taken pictures of the front of all first class mail for years.
I signed up for this service for a PO Box in another city.
It allows me to know what arrived without the long trip.
But you are right, privacy left the building a number of years ago.
It still exists in other countries that can’t spend whatever they want to take over your life.
There’s a place on the Chile/Argentina border, that really isn’t claimed by either country. Life goes on there as it has for hundreds of years. Of course, no Starbucks, and probably much we like... trade-offs.
Other modern countries have other trade-offs.
If they would give me the option of sending individual pieces straight to a shredder, I would be fine with this.
What neanderthal sends mail these days?
I’ve been using it for a month or so.
Look, they could have taken the photos and not told you.
I’m got getting anything I don’t want them to know about.
This doesn’t bother me. Other people may get things they don’t want the government knowing about. I can see how that would bother them.
I’m not inferring anything illegal or illicit. Some folks just want more privacy.
Have been getting the notification for about a month or so in Florida.
THey’ve been taking pictures of mail for over 20 years. If the Multi Level OCR machines (MLOCR) can’t read an address (i.e. handwriting like mine) a picture is sent to a Remote Computer Reader (RCR) where a better machine or human will read the address and type it into the system without delaying delivery. Ever get mail with those little barcode labels stuck on the back? That’s what it is.
As much as paranoiacs will like to think otherwise, this has to do with efficiency and nothing to do with privacy. It’s explained on the USPS website:
https://about.usps.com/publications/pub100/pub100_046.htm
The problem will be when they screw up and send your neighbors (or total strangers) pictures of your mail.
It’ll happen. It’s the post office.
I don’t care if the gubbermint looks at all my correspondence. I have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of. Only negative aspect is, it is a waste of tax payer money to snoop on me, who has not even had a traffic violation in 50 years.
Recently I had to educate the IRS agent on why my cashing out of an annuity was not a fully taxable event, because it was mostly return of capital. I had to educate her by giving her an example, such as placing $100 in a savings account, receiving $2 in interest, then withdrawing $102. Only the interest is taxable. The other $100 is return of capital. Our government is a bloated massive bloody joke.
Yes. And for some reason I’m getting someone else’s mail scans - my neighbors - so I can know EXACTLY what mail he receives and from whom.
Still more private than e-mail.
Or posts on political websites.
they had to have had access from the USPS...