Postal ID plan creates privacy fears

[jayfish]

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5062617.html

-SNIP-
A government report that urges the U.S. Postal Service to create "smart stamps" to track the identity of people who send mail is eliciting concern from privacy advocates.
The report, released last month by the President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service, issued numerous recommendations aimed at reforming the debt-laden agency. One recommendation is that the USPS "aggressively pursue" the development of a so-called intelligent mail system.

Though details remain sketchy, an intelligent mail system would involve using barcodes or special stamps, identifying, at a minimum, the sender, the destination and the class of mail. USPS already offers mail-tracking services to corporate customers. The report proposes a broad expansion of the concept to all mail for national security purposes. It also suggests USPS work with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to develop the system.

-SNIP-


George Orwell was only 20 years off.

Jay

[Muddleoftheroad]

1. Interesting

I can already see a business in black market stamps. For people who don't want to be tracked. I'll buy 1,000 stamps and sell them to you for 50% increase, but I will do it as a cash business. That way, you can't be traced.

How does that sound?

[jayfish]

2. When Stamps Are Criminalized...

only criminals will have stamps.

Jay

[montana_hazeleyes]

3. LOL!!

!

[The Sushi Bandit]

4. Is this so they can trace Anthrax Letters??

Just imbed a chip in ass so they can track every time I sit down!

[dfong63]

5. imho something like traceable mail is needed

i dunno about anyone else, but i for one think the anthrax mailings demostrated that our current postal system is an excellent tool for terrorists.

i can think of very few uses of the mail system that legitimately need anonymity or untraceability. most of the uses are fraudulent or at least undesirable (spam).

personally i resent the fact that people can put things in MY mailbox (snail mail -or- email) without me knowing who they are.

[Trek234]

6. It already exists

It's called FedEx or UPS.

[Cronus Protagonist]

7. It's already in place - stamps are still anonymous BUT

...only if the package is under 16 ounces.

If you try to send mail that's over 16 ounces and uses regular stamps you have to go to the counter and identify yourself or they won't deliver it.

Additionally, if you have a postal meter, like I do, all my mail is now tagged with the sender's information (mine) and I don't have to wait at the counter for larger packages. That also means that they can track every one of my packages and letters from source to destination and clock every hop it takes, just like FedEx and UPS.

I think it's only a matter of a year, certainly less than five years, before all stamps have an RFID device in them so that the stamp can be tracked from origination post office to destination location and the data stored for mining. Same goes for FedEx and UPS - the bar code system is nearing the end of its life and RFID does not require packages to be oriented any particular way and can be read from a larger distance.


Fair & Balanced Buttons — The Cronus Connection

[benfranklin1776]

8. Sorry this is overkill

In the wake of the anthrax mailings steps have been taken to ensure the safety of the mail. However preventative measures such as irradiation are much better in that they render all pieces of mail safe from use as a biological warfare weapon instead of taking this "lets watch everyone and try to guess who'll do something bad approach" This approach would create a false sense of security in that the system is easily thwartable by people acting as stamp brokers or using false ids and it does nothing to prevent an act of terrorism from occurring. Physical security of the mail should be the primary focus not the compilation of a database dossier of people's mailing habits which as the experts in the article pointed out can be easily used to track people's political affiliations, reading habits and activities without a warrant and probable cause.

As for the need for anonymity there are plenty of legitimate reasons for wanting to stay anonymous in corresponding particularly when it comes to government and corporate whistleblowing. Nixon would have loved to be able to see who was sending the NY Times and the Washington Post information about his activities. This current crew of neofascist, civil liberty impaired intellectual delinquents would use this info for political harassment in a heartbeat. They have already misused the Homeland Security Department to find out where Texas Democrats were hiding, and now it has been revealed that they have threatened TSA employees with the use of the Patriot Act to subpoena their records to find out who leaked the info that they were cutting air marshals off flights at the time when there was a supposedly credible threat of terrorism warnings. http://www.msnbc.com/news/950176.asp?0cv=CB10&cp1=1
Certainly these yahoos would use this to get a hold of their mailing records as well. Sorry the threat to privacy far outweighs any benefits from this hackneyed proposal.