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A friend of mine suggested that the US Postal Service is in a great place to "pivot" into offering digital "trust" services by leveraging their ability to offer

A friend of mine suggested that the US Postal Service is in a great place to "pivot" into offering digital "trust" services by leveraging their ability to offer a somewhat credible authentication of an individual based on ones ability to receive physical mail.

newman8r 9y ago
interesting idea - and if you don't have a permanent residence you could just stop by a post office. Seems like they have the right infrastructure and are presently in need of a new business model.
kylecordes 9y ago
Perhaps; but the Postal Service currently operates at a near zero level of security for residential mail. Both incoming and outgoing mails said outside in an unlocked box (for many of us) that can be easily accessed by any passerby. If (even) more of the contents of those boxes became valuable for easy impersonation and theft, the motivation for people to rummage would increase, and we would all likely pay a cost both in convenience and dollars for ordinary mail use.
- cm2187 9y ago
  True. But that will still protect you from a kid in Russia.
- mschuster91 9y ago
  > Both incoming and outgoing mails said outside in an unlocked box (for many of us) that can be easily accessed by any passerby. Yeah, but get caught messing with mail and you can get royally screwed. I don't know of any other country where the Postal Service has its own cops with arrest powers, seems to be a pretty powerful deterrent.
  - stevekemp 9y ago
    There have been stories in the UK new recently, alleging postal delivery-workers were stealing and selling credit-cards from their deliveries. For example: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/revealed-crooked-birmingham-postmen-being-13561626 http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/revealed-...
- alkonaut 9y ago
  We have "mail as 2FA" used pretty widely here, and identity theft usually involves someone e.g. opening a credit card or ordering products in someone elses name, and then stalking their mailbox in order to actually get anything. So people simply got lockable mailboxes and that works pretty well.
- chiph 9y ago
  Mail theft is a problem in my area. The USPS is pushing for "cluster mailboxes" which are 20+ mailboxes in one aluminum housing. The problem is they're easy to break into. I had Netflix suspend my account because so many discs went missing. The postal inspector's response was "Did you call the cops?"
rabboRubble 9y ago
Here's my CSB addition... so I just moved and when I submitted my move notification to the US post office, they sent me a bunch of stuff including advertising for a service called USPS Informed Delivery. Post 9.11, the post office has been scanning the front and back of all mail delivered in the US. This is the corollary physical post anti-terrorism measure to scooping up all text messages and email metadata. Somebody realized that these scans could turned into a service where you can see what's in your postbox without having to visit it. Helpful if you don't get to the mailbox frequently or are traveling. I signed up for the service and they used some sort of knowledge based question to verify I actually lived at the new address. Questions like "Which of the 4 addresses did you live at previously?" The IRS has tried to lock down their systems with questions like this and failed miserably. With the amount of data accumulated about us all, if somebody wants to dig up info on you, it's possible through a myriad of data broker services. I failed the knowledge based identity test, I was asked to bring my ID to a post office. I think either they didn't have the right profile information for me, or were confusing the profile information for a prior occupant of my new address. My driver's license has a badge from the DMV showing that I had registered the new address with the DMV. This badge was delivered by mail to the new address. I presented this ID to the post office. After all this, my request to join the Informed Delivery program was rejected. I have notification submitted with the post office of my change of address, I presented valid DMV ID that was not accepted despite it having been correctly updated with the DMV. While I was there, I was asked to show a second form of ID which was not indicated as a requirement on the program documentation. I've escalated a request for explanation to the US post office without answer. While I agree the US post office could provide identity verification, they are definitely not geared to actually do so.
- xapata 9y ago
  The online identity verification questions were wrong for me, too. However, the in-person verification was very easy. The instructions said to bring a photo ID and proof of residence, like a lease.
  - rabboRubble 9y ago
    The ID instruction for me was one ID from a selection of government issued IDs. I brought what was asked for. Weirdly, they also accepted a US passport where the address is written in pencil, by the holder! http://faq.usps.com/documents/Informed_Delivery_Sign_Up_Guide.pdf http://faq.usps.com/documents/Informed_Delivery_Sign_Up_Guid... Visiting the post office was easy. Getting them to accept my ID document was not.
xapata 9y ago
They already do, to an extent. Most public libraries allow you to verify your residence by showing a piece of mail delivered to you.
krrrh 9y ago
Deutsche Post does this in Germany through its PostIdent program.[1] [1] (in German) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postident https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postident

newman8r 9y ago

interesting idea - and if you don't have a permanent residence you could just stop by a post office. Seems like they have the right infrastructure and are presently in need of a new business model.

kylecordes 9y ago

Perhaps; but the Postal Service currently operates at a near zero level of security for residential mail. Both incoming and outgoing mails said outside in an unlocked box (for many of us) that can be easily accessed by any passerby. If (even) more of the contents of those boxes became valuable for easy impersonation and theft, the motivation for people to rummage would increase, and we would all likely pay a cost both in convenience and dollars for ordinary mail use.

cm2187 9y ago
True. But that will still protect you from a kid in Russia.
mschuster91 9y ago
> Both incoming and outgoing mails said outside in an unlocked box (for many of us) that can be easily accessed by any passerby. Yeah, but get caught messing with mail and you can get royally screwed. I don't know of any other country where the Postal Service has its own cops with arrest powers, seems to be a pretty powerful deterrent.
- stevekemp 9y ago
  There have been stories in the UK new recently, alleging postal delivery-workers were stealing and selling credit-cards from their deliveries. For example: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/revealed-crooked-birmingham-postmen-being-13561626 http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/revealed-...
alkonaut 9y ago
We have "mail as 2FA" used pretty widely here, and identity theft usually involves someone e.g. opening a credit card or ordering products in someone elses name, and then stalking their mailbox in order to actually get anything. So people simply got lockable mailboxes and that works pretty well.
chiph 9y ago
Mail theft is a problem in my area. The USPS is pushing for "cluster mailboxes" which are 20+ mailboxes in one aluminum housing. The problem is they're easy to break into. I had Netflix suspend my account because so many discs went missing. The postal inspector's response was "Did you call the cops?"

rabboRubble 9y ago

Here's my CSB addition... so I just moved and when I submitted my move notification to the US post office, they sent me a bunch of stuff including advertising for a service called USPS Informed Delivery. Post 9.11, the post office has been scanning the front and back of all mail delivered in the US. This is the corollary physical post anti-terrorism measure to scooping up all text messages and email metadata. Somebody realized that these scans could turned into a service where you can see what's in your postbox without having to visit it. Helpful if you don't get to the mailbox frequently or are traveling. I signed up for the service and they used some sort of knowledge based question to verify I actually lived at the new address. Questions like "Which of the 4 addresses did you live at previously?" The IRS has tried to lock down their systems with questions like this and failed miserably. With the amount of data accumulated about us all, if somebody wants to dig up info on you, it's possible through a myriad of data broker services. I failed the knowledge based identity test, I was asked to bring my ID to a post office. I think either they didn't have the right profile information for me, or were confusing the profile information for a prior occupant of my new address. My driver's license has a badge from the DMV showing that I had registered the new address with the DMV. This badge was delivered by mail to the new address. I presented this ID to the post office. After all this, my request to join the Informed Delivery program was rejected. I have notification submitted with the post office of my change of address, I presented valid DMV ID that was not accepted despite it having been correctly updated with the DMV. While I was there, I was asked to show a second form of ID which was not indicated as a requirement on the program documentation. I've escalated a request for explanation to the US post office without answer. While I agree the US post office could provide identity verification, they are definitely not geared to actually do so.

xapata 9y ago
The online identity verification questions were wrong for me, too. However, the in-person verification was very easy. The instructions said to bring a photo ID and proof of residence, like a lease.
- rabboRubble 9y ago
  The ID instruction for me was one ID from a selection of government issued IDs. I brought what was asked for. Weirdly, they also accepted a US passport where the address is written in pencil, by the holder! http://faq.usps.com/documents/Informed_Delivery_Sign_Up_Guide.pdf http://faq.usps.com/documents/Informed_Delivery_Sign_Up_Guid... Visiting the post office was easy. Getting them to accept my ID document was not.

xapata 9y ago

They already do, to an extent. Most public libraries allow you to verify your residence by showing a piece of mail delivered to you.

krrrh 9y ago

Deutsche Post does this in Germany through its PostIdent program.[1] [1] (in German) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postident https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postident