The government is photographing all mail....but don't worry about it

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Hope this one doesn't make the moderators holler at me, but I'll take a chance WITHOUT GETTING POLITICAL!:eek:

I read an article in the newspaper that the government is having the Postal Service photograph all pieces of mail they sort. Something like 160 billion pieces a day. They said it should be of no worry to us whatsoever, as it is just an anti-terrorism function. OK, then explain this one to me: My kids all took part in Christian quiz matches (And did VERY well in them, thank you).:D The organization that sponsored them put us on their mailing list for fund-raising purposes. We have never donated, but we're still on it a few years after the last kid was in a quiz. A few weeks ago we got a fund-raising letter. In big bold letters on the envelope it said it had been "opened for inspection".:eek: I took it in to the Postmaster to ask why. He advised me they do that with random pieces of mail from non-profit groups to make sure they are abiding by the Postal rules for non-profits. With the scandals with the IRS and the Tea Party groups it kinda makes me look askance at that story. This is obviously a non-PC group. It says "Christian" right there for all to see. I wonder if it had been from Handgun Control or the Sierra Club if it would have gotten that "random" scrutiny.

Anybody else think we're experiencing "1984"....29 years too late?:eek:
Jim
 
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P&R Fan, if you still have that letter with the postal stamps seriously I might find a sympathetic Senator or Congressman (Sen. Grassley of Iowa has a top notch office, Rep. Issa is his House counterpart) and submit it to them (keep copies of everything).

That's pretty disturbing.

To me this goes beyond "politics" and which side you're on. Our government is tracking and filing away every phone call, email, message board chat, and apparently letter and package, stored indefinitely for their use at any point. We're supposed to not worry b/c a secret Star Chamber style court that also is completely clandestine as to members and rulings is overseeing these other clandestine agencies with no public accountability.

They are filing away almost everything every American does, and apparently what we're supposed to do in response is just have faith it will never be misused.

Ironically that's pretty much what Parliament told the Founding Fathers, to just calm down, don't worry, and trust in their rulers...er .... leaders. They didn't like that answer any more than I do.
 
Absolutely outrageous. Non profits can be audited, at their place of business, if there are concerns with legitimacy. Randomly opening citizen's mail is an unconstitutional practice, and an example of a scary trend to marginalize and deconstruct our civil rights.

People need to be outraged at these attacks on our civil liberties. If so inclined, you should reach out to your elected representatives and file a complaint. If we don't push back, they will continue to encroach on these freedoms. It is a long slow slide into what we see in 'those other countries.'

In my opinion, Americans need to me as concerned with the attack on our 4th Amendment, as they are with protecting the 2nd Amendment.
 
Speaking of mail, think about what you mail delivery person knows about you. All someone could do is flash a badge and your mail person could fill a book on you. They see what magazines your house gets, see what you are interested in or perhaps a member of, they see who sends you bills.

If like in my case they pick up from our rural mail box they also can see what companies you pay or who/what in general you are corresponding with.
 
All the jobs our leaders have "created" over the last couple decades have been in control or enforcement capacities, NOT ONE is a productive job!

Come on folks, WHO do you think they were intended to control?

Me thinks our gub'ment has a serious shortage of pink paper.

OH! - wait - - That's right, they don't create anything but jobs :( OK, so they need to order up some pink slips :)
 
I don't like it but did not worry too much about it.

I saw the article but did not worry much since it is the post office and I doubt they will get them delivered the storage facility without loosing most of them. If their storage works like their tracking service it will be garbage in and you know what comes out after that.

As a current example, I am waiting on a package from Vermont that was mailed on Monday morning and was due here this past Thursday. Today is Sunday and the tracking into is still showing it at the Vermont sorting facility.

I would be more concerned if it were the Homeland Security spooks photographing every single piece of mail and storing the records.
 
All I ever get in the mail are credit card offers and AT&T Uverse bundle deals. I feel for the flunky that has to view that stuff.
 
USPS is losing $25mil per day. The photographing is being done by The History Channel.
 
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I have worked for the USPS for nearly twenty-seven years. A few years ago, six million pieces of mail moved through the metro Atlanta bulk mail center each day. That is just Atlanta. Do you honestly believe each and every piece is being photographed and reviewed? There is some sorting/prepping of mail done at each local post office prior to it being trucked to the bulk mail centers, but that hardly scratches a portion of the mass volume.

Yes, as a mail carrier I know a good bit about my customers. For instance, I know if someone has ever ordered from Land's End, because they are now on every mailing list in the country. I see who your doctors are, who your insurance is with, where you shop, who in your home just got their drivers license revoked ( a bunch more folks than you would think) and who is still driving anyway. In a few cases, I know who is having affairs. I do not share this info, Hell, I am way too busy to even give most of this a second thought.

Postal employees are not government spies.
 
ColbyBruce said:
I have worked for the USPS for nearly twenty-seven years. A few years ago, six million pieces of mail moved through the metro Atlanta bulk mail center each day. That is just Atlanta. Do you honestly believe each and every piece is being photographed and reviewed?
Click to expand...

Why not? Just like every phone record is put into a NSA database.

Probably not a lot different than what the USPS does anyway, using OCR scanning software for typed and written names and addresses. But unlike the USPS, the government would retain all the info, plus an image, in a NSA database for any kind of analysis they might want to dream up. Computers will be doing the reviewing. So yes, not only will each and every piece be reviewed, they may be reviewed an infinite number of times before a human looks at what they may be actually interested in seeing.
 
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ColbyBruce said:
I have worked for the USPS for nearly twenty-seven years. A few years ago, six million pieces of mail moved through the metro Atlanta bulk mail center each day. That is just Atlanta. Do you honestly believe each and every piece is being photographed and reviewed? There is some sorting/prepping of mail done at each local post office prior to it being trucked to the bulk mail centers, but that hardly scratches a portion of the mass volume.
Click to expand...

I assume most every package is computer scanned for sorting? That would generate a digital image of the package info. Easy enough to store that image rather than discard it. That image is then OCR'ed and then any OCR information could be stored in a database.

If a computer see the letter storing the data is straightforward, and I assume a computer sees most all of mail that moves through the system.
 
NYlakesider said:
Speaking of mail, think about what you mail delivery person knows about you. All someone could do is flash a badge and your mail person could fill a book on you. They see what magazines your house gets, see what you are interested in or perhaps a member of, they see who sends you bills.

If like in my case they pick up from our rural mail box they also can see what companies you pay or who/what in general you are corresponding with.
Click to expand...

In that case--they would be calling me belinda Vasquez--because most of the mail I get for the past 2 years-has her name on it. From that all they would get is that A)--she had no life to begin with. B) Her life was more boring than mine. C) She wasted lost of money buying junk from places like: Home Shopping Network and such.
 
Anyone have a link to this Kodak moment?

Or is from the Tin Foil gazette?

Oh this is why I could not find it. It has a Govt name:rolleyes:

The Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program
 
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