Postal ID plan creates privacy fears

[joeunderdog]

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

Such a system could also facilitate expanded government surveillance powers, said Chris Hoofnagle, deputy counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

For instance, the FBI is already allowed to photocopy the outside of unopened letters and packages sent and received by suspected criminals in order to monitor their communications, Hoofnagle said. An intelligent mail system could make conducting such "mail cover" activity easier, enabling the FBI to build databases tracking communication among people on a broader scale, he noted.

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5062617.html?tag=cd_mh

[Paschall]

1. Uh, seems like they should be investing in improved service

It's ridiculous that mail takes a week to travel from Dallas to Houston, for example.

I'm sooo used to France's excellent mail service: you're almost guaranteed overnight delivery anywhere in the country for standard first-class postage. We can get mail from Paris to New York faster than letter carriers can deliver mail from Corpus Christi to Lubbock. Ridiculous.

[PennyLane]

2. Big Bro.........

......is watching everything you do!!!!!x(

[alaine]

4. I guess it's because they aren't spending a billion $

a week in Iraq. Fancy that.

[Mel]

3. not only our privacy

but we get to pay for it too in higher 'fees' don't you just love crony capitalism?
WoW, aren't we just so lucky to live in a :cough: democracy where we have our freedom. Oh, yes, I almost forgot they hate us for our freedom :eyes: