
Report Reveals Wider Tracking of Mail in U.S - ghosh
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/us/us-secretly-monitoring-mail-of-thousands.html?_r=0
======
diafygi
This is a great example of growing executive power at the expense of a
company's (in this case the USPS's) credibility. Across most industries,
technology and tracking are used to make businesses run more efficiently and
provide better services. That's great and definitely adds value.

However, law enforcement seems to think that now that companies are collecting
all this data, they should have access to it, too, without restriction. The
problem is that once these sorts of programs become common knowledge, the
companies start being viewed as just an arm of law enforcement. Do you trust
the local police? FBI? NSA?

No? Then don't trust these companies.

The solution to this is not to stop the mail tracking (tracking numbers are an
awesome feature), but to curtail the reach and powers of the executive. Law
enforcement shouldn't be able to request whatever they want from these company
datasets.

So how do you fix it?

First, the business records laws on which these data requests rely are
incredibly antiquated and not meant for huge networks of communications. So a
solution is to update these laws to better protect user tracking data when it
is in the hands of a company. However, Congress doesn't seem to want to do
anything, so the legislative branch is losing power more and more.

Second, the judicial branch could step in and rule that these searches are
protected under the Fourth Amendment. However, the executive has been claiming
privileged on most of these cases, which means they get dragged on for years
and years. Kudos to the EFF and ACLU for sticking it out, but the judicial
branch is simply not keeping up with executive power grabs.

Third, users of the companies can start fuzzing or encrypting their data. In
this article, a solution could be for someone to offer an aggregated address
to which people can send letters. It's basically a manual VPN or onion-routing
technique. Unfortunately, this tactic is very difficult to hide all metadata,
so I'd prefer the first two options over asking users to fuzz their data.

Disclosure: I volunteer for Restore the Fourth, which is a 501(c)(4)
organization advocating for greater barriers to warrantless or broad
surveillance. We are currently focusing on getting local cities to pass
privacy policies that limit what data local law enforcement can gather and
share.

EDIT: I realize that the USPS is a part of the government, but it is not an
arm of law enforcement. It should still require a warrant to obtain user
tracking data from the USPS just like any other business.

~~~
karmacondon
The USPS has been tracking mail in this way for well over a hundred years. Why
should we see this as a problem to be fixed now, as opposed to 100 years ago?

~~~
bediger4000
Why haven't we seen any benefits from this hundred years of dragnet
surveillance? I get all kinds of creepy junk mail, obviously sketchy load
offers, someone who very carefully offers to remind me to renew my domain name
for a sumptuous fee, stuff like that. Why doesn't the TLA in charge of this
data shut stuff down? The FBI might have been able to avert the 2008 financial
crisis by intercepting subprime mortgage offers, and prosecuting the hell out
of the shady mortgage vendors. Terrorism can't hold a candle to the damage
that the 2008 financial crisis did to the USA.

~~~
anigbrowl
You raise an interesting question. I would love to be able to refuse delivery
of postal spam (as you can in the Netherlands, where almost everyone has a
sticker on their mail box saying whether or not they accept unsolicited
commercial communications addressed to a generic 'resident', and commercial
communications addressed to them personally).

It turns out that you _do_ have a right to prevent delivery of junk mail,
thanks to a 1970 court case called _Rowan c. Post Office Department_
([http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3558098989148411...](http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3558098989148411069&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr)).
In fact, you can download a form 1500 from the US postal service toput this
into effect....but you have to do it for each sender of mail, and the form
requires you to affirm that you find the amterial 'erotically arousing or
sexually provocative,' even though the holding in _Rowan_ is _not_ limited to
such cases. Right now the Postal Service redirects consumers to the FTC for
help with getting off mailing lists - presumably because a) it does not want
the additional hassle and expense of presorting and not delivering junk mail
and b) because the Postal Service is famously under financial pressure and the
delivery of bulk mail provides a huge chunk of its revenue - bulk mail makes
up roughly half of all mail delivered and about 1/3 of USPS revenues (as of
2011 - [http://stateimpact.npr.org/new-hampshire/2011/09/27/how-
junk...](http://stateimpact.npr.org/new-hampshire/2011/09/27/how-junk-mail-is-
helping-to-prop-up-the-postal-service/)).

I can think of a strategy for forcing the USPS to let consumers opt out of
receiving junk mail, but it would involve some expensive and protracted
litigation and would likely drive the price of first-class mail up to $1 if
implemented, so it would generate a great deal of political opposition. I have
not done in-depth research on the legality of the USPS dumping this problem
into the lap of the FTC, so my impression that the USPS could be compelled not
to deliver junk mail in the first place may be incorrect.

~~~
drivingmenuts
A while back on HN, there was an article about private mail filtering
services. You would have your ground mail sent to them, they would get rid of
the junk mail and send you only the "good stuff" that you specified.

(Anecdotal) Well, these guys had a meeting with Postal Inspector who didn't
think much of what they were doing. When informed that it was a voluntary
service, he pretty bluntly informed them that it would upset the 400 or so of
his (the Postal Inspector's) largest customers.

Upshot, the Postal Service has a vested interested in you receiving junk mail
because they are paid to deliver it, and woe betide anyone who interrupts
that.

~~~
anigbrowl
Agreed, hence my comments about it requiring expensive litigation.

------
double0jimb0
And who builds the sorting systems for the USPS? The largest defense
contractor, Lockheed Martin: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/08...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/08/06/AR2006080600630.html)

Dun dun dun...

------
netcan
Someone should figure out what law enforcers are and aren't allowed to do as
part of their investigations. They should figure out what people's rights are.

Then, they should write it down on a piece of velum. Maybe some more people
could sign it.

------
HarryHirsch
50000 requests for "mail metadata", no warrant required? You'd like to know
just what dangerous crimes were solved with those pieces of data.

------
lettercarrier
Pmg Donahoe says systems don't store address info long term (>30 days) and are
not linked nationwide

They ask us how to monitize last mile or get new revenue. I suggested giving
patrons data on what pieces went through sorters. Have a table view where you
see letters processed that day. You could know what will be in your mailbox.
You could see history of when stuff gets mailed to you. So many possibilities.

USPS really has no profit thinking mindset whatsoever. Coming from telecom
it's polar opposite.

If bed bath & beyond mails a $5 coupon, ad space on the patrons table view
could be sold to linens n things or Wally (like my online bank transactions).
This is just the beginning

We know (without any help from electrons) who gets arrested, where they work,
car they drive, marital status, divorced or about to be, kids, age, political
involvement, Prime customer, when they are home and when they are not, animal
lover, catalogue orderer/receiver, has parents at home, previous city, tax
bill, Cable/telco/direct tv, lawn service/snow removal, ultra rich and ultra
poor. We see changes first too, often before they even tell other family
members.

Imagine a good analyst having at it with just the to/from addresses / names.

The USPS has no clue, not even a crumb of a clue, how valuable letters, flats
and parcels are to a company who wants to acquire new customers.

Ahh.. oh well..

By the way, the USPS takes no taxpayer money...

------
andyzweb
every piece of mail in the United States is tracked. Every package, every
envelope.

~~~
uptown
And photographed.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/us/postal-service-
confirms...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/us/postal-service-confirms-
photographing-all-us-mail.html)

~~~
rhino369
Of course, they have to detect your address with a computer.

------
rglover
Just assume that everything you do in the U.S., anywhere, is being watched or
tracked in some way.

~~~
sitkack
It would be patriotic to turn ourselves in for pre-thought-crime, or rather
just continue to vote with the status quo and keep our heads down.

------
upofadown
This article might be a good rebuttal to claims that totally insecure writing
on some paper might somehow be more secure than encryption.

------
hammock
Given recent NSA revelations, could good old fashioned sealed envelopes might
be more secure than encryption? I wonder if they have a smart, undetectable
way of getting into the mail contents itself.

~~~
chiph
Before the electronic age, the FBI, CIA and their predecessors would regularly
do that. The skills needed to do so without detection might be rare these days
(as people retire).

~~~
maxxxxx
Just wait until some terrorists use only mail to prepare an attack. Then
probably every piece of mail will be read to protect us.

~~~
chiph
Like the anthrax that was sent through the mail starting about a week after
9/11? The attacks killed five people in the US.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks)

~~~
maxxxxx
Reading those letters wouldn't have prevented the attacks. I am talking about
people avoiding E-mail or phone and exclusively using mail to coordinate
attacks.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
Reading those letters would have killed some postal workers instead of the
intended targets.

------
Ricapar
It's called a "tracking number" for a reason.

~~~
privong
There is a difference between the USPS tracking mail to ensure it does not get
lost and the USPS giving that information to the FBI or other law enforcement
agencies.

------
VLM
I wonder if the mail tracking data is sold to credit reporting agencies. Oh
look he got an old fashioned paper bill from his water utility, and then he
replied with a letter (payment) from the mailbox across the street exactly 3
days later. How fascinating and presumably useful as a metric, somehow.

Marketing agencies would likely be interested. Oh look he's exchanging
correspondence with a known estate lawyer, someone must have died, how can we
profit off that?

I suppose interesting environmental studies could be possible, since at least
90% of my incoming paper mail is garbage.

Big Brother doesn't throw away things very often, all CYA you know. I bet a
century from now looking at the social network of old fashioned paper
Christmas Cards would be interesting genealogy research. (edited to add:
Mothers day cards!)

