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I find it hard to believe that the us government would snoop in your emails and in your IM messages, but somehow not submit your physical packages to some amoun

by make3 9y ago

I find it hard to believe that the us government would snoop in your emails and in your IM messages, but somehow not submit your physical packages to some amount of noninvasive scanning

webkike 9y ago
Reading emails is a lot easier than scanning packages that people get mad at not arriving on time. I'm sure there's some inspection. But the other companies are most certainly worse.
- bmpafa 9y ago
  ^^ this. even cursory x-ray inspection is a huge undertaking. I once worked for the USPS in a Middle Eastern country, and it was our job to assist local customs officials as they scanned / inspected every piece of inbound mail. They ran each piece through an x-ray, and whenever they spotted a banned item (liquor bottles, sex toys--hell, they even inspected optical discs to make sure they weren't porn), they opened the package and confiscated it. We cleared about 1 mail truck of mail every night, and it took 5-10 hours. No way that's sustainable on the scale of domestic mail throughput.
  - code_duck 9y ago
    What about scanning for moderate amounts of items that could be automatically detected by machines, like cash, or assessing groups of packages in bulk for drugs or explosives with canines?
Spooky23 9y ago
It’s true... there are limited circumstances by law where mail can be tampered with. The downside is that if you commit a crime and there is a nexus with the mail, you’re facing a serious felony. Politicians submit ethics paperwork via hand delivery for this reason.
zeth___ 9y ago
Laws have very little to do with sense. There is a reason why PGP was going to be published as a book of source code to get around the munituons export ban thay affected crytography in the 80/90s by creating a first amendment issue.
Me1000 9y ago
per: https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/contactUs/faq.aspx https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/contactUs/faq.aspx Letters cannot be opened without a warrant, but it sounds like they could be subject to scans. In general though, almost all laws (especially with respect to privacy) were written with physical privacy in mind, not virtual. The statutes around opening a letter is much more well defined those around recording unencrypted emails.
heartbreak 9y ago
USPS scans first class mail and probably stores the metadata. They definitely store it long enough to support their Informed Delivery service, a free service they have where they email you the scans ahead of delivery.

by make3 9y ago

I find it hard to believe that the us government would snoop in your emails and in your IM messages, but somehow not submit your physical packages to some amount of noninvasive scanning

webkike 9y ago

Reading emails is a lot easier than scanning packages that people get mad at not arriving on time. I'm sure there's some inspection. But the other companies are most certainly worse.

bmpafa 9y ago
^^ this. even cursory x-ray inspection is a huge undertaking. I once worked for the USPS in a Middle Eastern country, and it was our job to assist local customs officials as they scanned / inspected every piece of inbound mail. They ran each piece through an x-ray, and whenever they spotted a banned item (liquor bottles, sex toys--hell, they even inspected optical discs to make sure they weren't porn), they opened the package and confiscated it. We cleared about 1 mail truck of mail every night, and it took 5-10 hours. No way that's sustainable on the scale of domestic mail throughput.
- code_duck 9y ago
  What about scanning for moderate amounts of items that could be automatically detected by machines, like cash, or assessing groups of packages in bulk for drugs or explosives with canines?

Spooky23 9y ago

It’s true... there are limited circumstances by law where mail can be tampered with. The downside is that if you commit a crime and there is a nexus with the mail, you’re facing a serious felony. Politicians submit ethics paperwork via hand delivery for this reason.

zeth___ 9y ago

Laws have very little to do with sense. There is a reason why PGP was going to be published as a book of source code to get around the munituons export ban thay affected crytography in the 80/90s by creating a first amendment issue.

Me1000 9y ago

per: https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/contactUs/faq.aspx https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/contactUs/faq.aspx Letters cannot be opened without a warrant, but it sounds like they could be subject to scans. In general though, almost all laws (especially with respect to privacy) were written with physical privacy in mind, not virtual. The statutes around opening a letter is much more well defined those around recording unencrypted emails.

heartbreak 9y ago

USPS scans first class mail and probably stores the metadata. They definitely store it long enough to support their Informed Delivery service, a free service they have where they email you the scans ahead of delivery.