3 ms·

... letter?

by tomrod 2y ago

... letter?

ChumpGPT 2y ago
Anything you receive via post office. Sender/Receiver address is scanned. Post office uses OCR's for sortation and that information is captured.
- tomrod 2y ago
  Ah. The metadata. Inconsequential, then, to a degree.
  - dredmorbius 2y ago
    "We Kill People Based on Metadata", ex-NSA chief General Michael Hayden: <https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/05/ex-nsa-chief-we-kill-people-based-on-metadata https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/05/ex-nsa-chief-...> As Bruce Schneier has noted, metadata equals surveillance, as it's actually far more amenable to analysis and inference than whole-text or audio capture. Though that latter may have shifted significantly with the rise of LLM AI techniques. <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/03/metadata_survei.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/03/metadata_surv...>
dredmorbius 2y ago
This is probably a reference to US postal or mail covers. The USPS takes images of most or all postal mail as part of its delivery and postal sorting/routing processes. Those covers are retained for a limited period of time, and actually have, so far as I understand, significant privacy protections associated with them, of the sort notably absent in most electronic communications. See: Mail Cover (Wikipedia): Mail cover is a law enforcement investigative technique in which the United States Postal Service, acting at the request of a law enforcement agency, records information from the outside of letters and parcels before they are delivered and then sends the information to the agency that requested it.[1] The Postal Service grants mail cover surveillance requests for about 30 days and may extend them for up to 120 days. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_cover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_cover> MICT: Mail Isolation Control and Tracking (Wikipedia): [A]n imaging system employed by the United States Postal Service (USPS) that takes photographs of the exterior of every piece of mail that is processed in the United States.[1] The Postmaster General has stated that the system is primarily used for mail sorting,[2] though it also enables the USPS to retroactively track mail correspondence at the request of law enforcement.[2] It was created in the aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people.. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_Isolation_Control_and_Tracking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_Isolation_Control_and_Tra...> 39 CFR § 233.3 - Mail covers. <https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/39/233.3 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/39/233.3>
- kevin_thibedeau 2y ago
  You can sign up to have them email you a daily summary of your mail deliveries including the associated images they've logged under USPS Informed Delivery.
  - dredmorbius 2y ago
    Right, more info here: <https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm> (I was ... vaguely aware of this.)

... letter?

by tomrod 2y ago

... letter?

Anything you receive via post office. Sender/Receiver address is scanned. Post office uses OCR's for sortation and that information is captured.

tomrod 2y ago
Ah. The metadata. Inconsequential, then, to a degree.
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  "We Kill People Based on Metadata", ex-NSA chief General Michael Hayden: <https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/05/ex-nsa-chief-we-kill-people-based-on-metadata https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/05/ex-nsa-chief-...> As Bruce Schneier has noted, metadata equals surveillance, as it's actually far more amenable to analysis and inference than whole-text or audio capture. Though that latter may have shifted significantly with the rise of LLM AI techniques. <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/03/metadata_survei.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/03/metadata_surv...>

dredmorbius 2y ago

This is probably a reference to US postal or mail covers. The USPS takes images of most or all postal mail as part of its delivery and postal sorting/routing processes. Those covers are retained for a limited period of time, and actually have, so far as I understand, significant privacy protections associated with them, of the sort notably absent in most electronic communications. See: Mail Cover (Wikipedia): Mail cover is a law enforcement investigative technique in which the United States Postal Service, acting at the request of a law enforcement agency, records information from the outside of letters and parcels before they are delivered and then sends the information to the agency that requested it.[1] The Postal Service grants mail cover surveillance requests for about 30 days and may extend them for up to 120 days. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_cover https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_cover> MICT: Mail Isolation Control and Tracking (Wikipedia): [A]n imaging system employed by the United States Postal Service (USPS) that takes photographs of the exterior of every piece of mail that is processed in the United States.[1] The Postmaster General has stated that the system is primarily used for mail sorting,[2] though it also enables the USPS to retroactively track mail correspondence at the request of law enforcement.[2] It was created in the aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people.. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_Isolation_Control_and_Tracking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_Isolation_Control_and_Tra...> 39 CFR § 233.3 - Mail covers. <https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/39/233.3 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/39/233.3>

kevin_thibedeau 2y ago
You can sign up to have them email you a daily summary of your mail deliveries including the associated images they've logged under USPS Informed Delivery.
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  Right, more info here: <https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm https://www.usps.com/manage/informed-delivery.htm> (I was ... vaguely aware of this.)