5 ms·

They have been photographing every single package since anarchists were shipping bombs in the mail 100 years ago. Seems to be breaking news every few years.

by pbj1968 2y ago

dotcoma 2y ago
What do they do? They take photos of the exterior of the package? Or do they open it, check it, create another package and mail it ??
- greyface- 2y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_Isolation_Control_and_Tracking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_Isolation_Control_and_Tra...
  - toomuchtodo 2y ago
    Would be curious if the 30 day retention period is still accurate.
- odyssey7 2y ago
  If the open-source community can read the carbon-based ink inside carbonized ancient scrolls, then there is likely no need to open normal mail to read what it says. https://scrollprize.org/grandprize https://scrollprize.org/grandprize
  - AnimalMuppet 2y ago
    Congratulations. You drastically increased my paranoia with one sentence.
    - averynicepen 2y ago
      "These scrolls were scanned at Diamond Light Source, a particle accelerator near Oxford, England. The facility produces a parallel beam of X-rays at high flux, allowing for fast, accurate, and high-resolution imaging. The X-ray photos are turned into a 3D volume of voxels using tomographic reconstruction algorithms, resulting in a stack of slice images." That article is really cool BTW, amazing stuff. Give it a read.
browningstreet 2y ago
I get an email from the USPS every day with pictures of all the mail coming to my mailbox. It’s a service they offer for free.
- pseudolus 2y ago
  Informed delivery: https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm
  - c22 2y ago
    My local hackerspace uses this service with some OCR to email members when they have mail waiting at the space.
    - RockRobotRock 2y ago
      I just did this and paired it with ChatGPT to send me a Discord message like "You received mail from Progressive." Seems silly and lazy but it was a fun afternoon project (boring aside: USPS seems to have bespoke anti-bot measures which uses WASM to sign requests, which means you have to use full browser automation to login. Of course, most people instead parse the daily emails they send you which is a totally reasonable approach as well.)
      - tracker1 2y ago
        While a pain to automate on a server, Puppeteer/Playwright are both pretty straight forward to script against.
  - instagib 2y ago
    I had another one for a bit that would scan, open, and scan your mail also. Forward packages. Cheap and easy if you’re on the go. https://www.postgrid.com/mail-scanning-service-companies/ https://www.postgrid.com/mail-scanning-service-companies/
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
aaron695 2y ago
They have been photographing every single letter for a while now. And because of Moore's Law and cross-referencing databases now we can analysis it in depth. This is networks of people they can watch. Like if your mum writes to your childhoods mate (who now you drug dealers) mum and tracking were you live and the same as any internet spying, working out if are you gay or a communist or a gay communist and cross-referencing handwriting. They are also photographing your garbage. And can get your DNA from the sewers (although this might not have ever been used... publicly) License plate and phone tracking goes without saying. There's no reason ShotSpotter (which can get some local voice audio) can't be matched to your podcast. Meat world tracking is the new cool.... and it's nothing like 100 years ago.
Onavo 2y ago
What took them so long to catch the Unabomber?
- alfiedotwtf 2y ago
  Not sure why Aaron’s comment is dead, but he’s right - at least about taking photos of your trash. Our local council has shown pictures of people putting styrene packaging in their green waste bin, and there was a case a while ago where an elderly woman was murdered and put into a bin for collection - the truck has footage of the bin being emptied, so they could narrow down where in landfill she might be.
- beaeglebeachedd 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - _moof 2y ago
    > The wife had mega beef because she hated Ted (from docs she also seems a mega cunt) so she pushed hard to get him to narc Is this really the tone you want to take about someone insisting that a guy mailing literal bombs to people be arrested?
    - beaeglebeachedd 2y ago
      I think she recklessly pushed it to get rid of Ted with disregard for how much it hurt her husband. It was the right outcome but done by an evil bitch for selfish purposes that hurt her husband with no genuine regard for innocents. It wasn't some act of valor done to help people.
      - jhgvh 2y ago
        [flagged]
      - 2y ago

They have been photographing every single package since anarchists were shipping bombs in the mail 100 years ago. Seems to be breaking news every few years.

dotcoma 2y ago

What do they do? They take photos of the exterior of the package? Or do they open it, check it, create another package and mail it ??

greyface- 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_Isolation_Control_and_Tracking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_Isolation_Control_and_Tra...
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  Would be curious if the 30 day retention period is still accurate.
odyssey7 2y ago
If the open-source community can read the carbon-based ink inside carbonized ancient scrolls, then there is likely no need to open normal mail to read what it says. https://scrollprize.org/grandprize https://scrollprize.org/grandprize
- AnimalMuppet 2y ago
  Congratulations. You drastically increased my paranoia with one sentence.
  - averynicepen 2y ago
    "These scrolls were scanned at Diamond Light Source, a particle accelerator near Oxford, England. The facility produces a parallel beam of X-rays at high flux, allowing for fast, accurate, and high-resolution imaging. The X-ray photos are turned into a 3D volume of voxels using tomographic reconstruction algorithms, resulting in a stack of slice images." That article is really cool BTW, amazing stuff. Give it a read.

browningstreet 2y ago

I get an email from the USPS every day with pictures of all the mail coming to my mailbox. It’s a service they offer for free.

pseudolus 2y ago
Informed delivery: https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm
- c22 2y ago
  My local hackerspace uses this service with some OCR to email members when they have mail waiting at the space.
  - RockRobotRock 2y ago
    I just did this and paired it with ChatGPT to send me a Discord message like "You received mail from Progressive." Seems silly and lazy but it was a fun afternoon project (boring aside: USPS seems to have bespoke anti-bot measures which uses WASM to sign requests, which means you have to use full browser automation to login. Of course, most people instead parse the daily emails they send you which is a totally reasonable approach as well.)
    - tracker1 2y ago
      While a pain to automate on a server, Puppeteer/Playwright are both pretty straight forward to script against.
- instagib 2y ago
  I had another one for a bit that would scan, open, and scan your mail also. Forward packages. Cheap and easy if you’re on the go. https://www.postgrid.com/mail-scanning-service-companies/ https://www.postgrid.com/mail-scanning-service-companies/
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

aaron695 2y ago

They have been photographing every single letter for a while now. And because of Moore's Law and cross-referencing databases now we can analysis it in depth. This is networks of people they can watch. Like if your mum writes to your childhoods mate (who now you drug dealers) mum and tracking were you live and the same as any internet spying, working out if are you gay or a communist or a gay communist and cross-referencing handwriting. They are also photographing your garbage. And can get your DNA from the sewers (although this might not have ever been used... publicly) License plate and phone tracking goes without saying. There's no reason ShotSpotter (which can get some local voice audio) can't be matched to your podcast. Meat world tracking is the new cool.... and it's nothing like 100 years ago.

Onavo 2y ago

What took them so long to catch the Unabomber?

alfiedotwtf 2y ago
Not sure why Aaron’s comment is dead, but he’s right - at least about taking photos of your trash. Our local council has shown pictures of people putting styrene packaging in their green waste bin, and there was a case a while ago where an elderly woman was murdered and put into a bin for collection - the truck has footage of the bin being emptied, so they could narrow down where in landfill she might be.
beaeglebeachedd 2y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- _moof 2y ago
  > The wife had mega beef because she hated Ted (from docs she also seems a mega cunt) so she pushed hard to get him to narc Is this really the tone you want to take about someone insisting that a guy mailing literal bombs to people be arrested?
  - beaeglebeachedd 2y ago
    I think she recklessly pushed it to get rid of Ted with disregard for how much it hurt her husband. It was the right outcome but done by an evil bitch for selfish purposes that hurt her husband with no genuine regard for innocents. It wasn't some act of valor done to help people.
    - jhgvh 2y ago
      [flagged]
    - 2y ago