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I hate using usps address change because they always leak my address. I didn’t do it once when I had a short stint and that addrsss isn’t leaked…

tbyehl 2y ago
They don't leak your address, they sell it. https://postalpro.usps.com/mailing-and-shipping-services/NCOALink https://postalpro.usps.com/mailing-and-shipping-services/NCO...
- richwater 2y ago
  Yet another reason I wouldn't care if the USPS shut down for good. Between delivering spam mail and selling my addresses, they provide net-negative value to my life.
  - steego 2y ago
    How about you vote for politicians that pass laws to protect your privacy and minimize junk mail instead? I personally use the USPS quite a bit to ship things and I prefer to use them over FedEx or UPS any chance I get.
    - cqqxo4zV46cp 2y ago
      Who said that they don’t? One person voting for a politician doesn’t change governmental policy JUST for them. How unnecessarily condescending.
      - uoaei 2y ago
        "instead" is the operative word here. It's commentary on priorities and reactionary attitudes. Please don't inflame the conversation with more combative language.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - mulmen 2y ago
    Yeah who wants a baby soaked in bath water? Throw it out!
  - mrj 2y ago
    The USPS is treated differently by Congress and is required to fund itself, unlike basically any other government service. It's unfortunate that something that was historically trustworthy has been essentially turned into some kind of weird government profit-making mashup. I don't think USPS is a net-bad though. I can only imagine how bad Fedex and UPS would become if they didn't have to compete with the USPS. And they're already pretty bad. But yeah.. wish they only delivered mail.
  - snypher 2y ago
    Looking forward to an Amazon courier throwing my vehicle tabs in the river then marking 'delivered'.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    Your address is basically public information in a number of different ways (e.g. voter registration rolls and real estate transactions) unless you take a lot of steps, including using legal entities, to obfuscate it. I'm not going to specifically defend USPS practices but your address isn't really private in the US and many other places.
    - SoftTalker 2y ago
      Very true and this is why I’m not surprised by TechCrunch’s discoveries here. I just assumed they were tracking and selling the data as they always have been. I assume they’re selling the images of everyone’s mail as well.
  - rgovostes 2y ago
    I tend to agree, it is a net negative for me too. My weekly tour of the mail room is to discard junk mail that I ceaselessly try to opt out of. When I asked for them to stop delivering the magazine subscriptions of a previous tenant addressed to "or Current Resident", they told me they are not allowed to do so. Once I chose to send a package through them, and I watched the tracking as the package rerouted to their lost mail center in Atlanta ("Mail Recovery Center", a misnomer if there ever was one). How could it be lost if they were still updating the tracking information? (Naturally, it was never "found".) I briefly forwarded my mail to a relative's address while I was out of the country for an extended period, and they sold that to numerous institutions without my permission, creating a headache to unwind. To this day knowledge-based authentication systems quiz me about an address I never lived at. I don't get a warm and fuzzy patriotic feeling from having a national postal service. If anything it feels like an anachronism. Paper mail has been virtually irrelevant to me my entire life.
- dylan604 2y ago
  They also give it away for free when you select to receive offers from whatever stores they've "partnered" with
Mountain_Skies 2y ago
When I moved a year ago, I didn't file an address change. I only gave it to my bank and a few others I needed to keep informed of my address. Almost none of the junk from my old address has followed me to my new address. One annoying exception has been the DMV in my new state informing the Secretary of State in my old state that I surrendered my old state's license for one in my new state. The SoS sent me a letter asking if the move was permanent or not because if so, they wanted to remove me from my old state's voting roll. I understand the desire to keep voting rolls clean but I'm not happy that this happened behind my back. Plus before I moved, I went to the SoS's site for my old state and informed them that I was moving and should be removed. I'm guessing they get a feed from other states and just mail everyone without checking if you've already been removed. Given the general incompetence of the SoS in my old state, it's probably just a matter of time before they leak out my new address to interested parties. I haven't registered to vote in my new state and unregistered in my old state so it's not like I'm trying to double vote or even vote at all.
- lh7777 2y ago
  Another option is to use the temporary address change form instead of the permanent one. You can have your mail temporarily forwarded for up to a year. Permanent forwarding also only lasts for a year. The only difference is that the USPS notifies everyone of your new address for permanent forwarding, but not for temporary. Just keep an eye out for any forwarded mail and notify the sender yourself if it’s something you want to keep receiving.
bobmcnamara 2y ago
Can I FOIA everyone's address?
- 0xDEADFED5 2y ago
  You can buy the available USPS data. pricing is here: https://postalpro.usps.com/address-quality/AIS_Products_Pricing https://postalpro.usps.com/address-quality/AIS_Products_Pric...
  - ghaff 2y ago
    Probably also voter registration information in your state. And I'm sure there are real estate databases. And while much less applicable with the decline of landlines, most people's addresses used to be published annually in the white pages delivered to everyone. Your address just wasn't considered to be sensitive information for the most part historically.
  - bobmcnamara 2y ago
    I don't want to buy government records, I want to pay no more than a reasonable data copying fee. I've already paid my share as a tax paying citizen.
    - Aloisius 2y ago
      The taxes you paid don't fund USPS though.
      - bobmcnamara 2y ago
        To be pedantic, I pay federal taxes which are then loaned to the USPS with no expectation of being paid back, as well as P.O. box fees because the nearest no-fee pickup is at the county seat, as well as subsidizing the USPS exemption through local property taxes that have to absorb that overhead. None of which are delivery related.
  - Aloisius 2y ago
    That data doesn't appear to have personal names or anything else that can be used to connect them to a specific individual. It's just all the addresses they deliver to with things like building type, schedules, route ids, etc.

tbyehl 2y ago

They don't leak your address, they sell it. https://postalpro.usps.com/mailing-and-shipping-services/NCOALink https://postalpro.usps.com/mailing-and-shipping-services/NCO...

richwater 2y ago
Yet another reason I wouldn't care if the USPS shut down for good. Between delivering spam mail and selling my addresses, they provide net-negative value to my life.
- steego 2y ago
  How about you vote for politicians that pass laws to protect your privacy and minimize junk mail instead? I personally use the USPS quite a bit to ship things and I prefer to use them over FedEx or UPS any chance I get.
  - cqqxo4zV46cp 2y ago
    Who said that they don’t? One person voting for a politician doesn’t change governmental policy JUST for them. How unnecessarily condescending.
    - uoaei 2y ago
      "instead" is the operative word here. It's commentary on priorities and reactionary attitudes. Please don't inflame the conversation with more combative language.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- mulmen 2y ago
  Yeah who wants a baby soaked in bath water? Throw it out!
- mrj 2y ago
  The USPS is treated differently by Congress and is required to fund itself, unlike basically any other government service. It's unfortunate that something that was historically trustworthy has been essentially turned into some kind of weird government profit-making mashup. I don't think USPS is a net-bad though. I can only imagine how bad Fedex and UPS would become if they didn't have to compete with the USPS. And they're already pretty bad. But yeah.. wish they only delivered mail.
- snypher 2y ago
  Looking forward to an Amazon courier throwing my vehicle tabs in the river then marking 'delivered'.
- ghaff 2y ago
  Your address is basically public information in a number of different ways (e.g. voter registration rolls and real estate transactions) unless you take a lot of steps, including using legal entities, to obfuscate it. I'm not going to specifically defend USPS practices but your address isn't really private in the US and many other places.
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    Very true and this is why I’m not surprised by TechCrunch’s discoveries here. I just assumed they were tracking and selling the data as they always have been. I assume they’re selling the images of everyone’s mail as well.
- rgovostes 2y ago
  I tend to agree, it is a net negative for me too. My weekly tour of the mail room is to discard junk mail that I ceaselessly try to opt out of. When I asked for them to stop delivering the magazine subscriptions of a previous tenant addressed to "or Current Resident", they told me they are not allowed to do so. Once I chose to send a package through them, and I watched the tracking as the package rerouted to their lost mail center in Atlanta ("Mail Recovery Center", a misnomer if there ever was one). How could it be lost if they were still updating the tracking information? (Naturally, it was never "found".) I briefly forwarded my mail to a relative's address while I was out of the country for an extended period, and they sold that to numerous institutions without my permission, creating a headache to unwind. To this day knowledge-based authentication systems quiz me about an address I never lived at. I don't get a warm and fuzzy patriotic feeling from having a national postal service. If anything it feels like an anachronism. Paper mail has been virtually irrelevant to me my entire life.
dylan604 2y ago
They also give it away for free when you select to receive offers from whatever stores they've "partnered" with

Mountain_Skies 2y ago

When I moved a year ago, I didn't file an address change. I only gave it to my bank and a few others I needed to keep informed of my address. Almost none of the junk from my old address has followed me to my new address. One annoying exception has been the DMV in my new state informing the Secretary of State in my old state that I surrendered my old state's license for one in my new state. The SoS sent me a letter asking if the move was permanent or not because if so, they wanted to remove me from my old state's voting roll. I understand the desire to keep voting rolls clean but I'm not happy that this happened behind my back. Plus before I moved, I went to the SoS's site for my old state and informed them that I was moving and should be removed. I'm guessing they get a feed from other states and just mail everyone without checking if you've already been removed. Given the general incompetence of the SoS in my old state, it's probably just a matter of time before they leak out my new address to interested parties. I haven't registered to vote in my new state and unregistered in my old state so it's not like I'm trying to double vote or even vote at all.

lh7777 2y ago
Another option is to use the temporary address change form instead of the permanent one. You can have your mail temporarily forwarded for up to a year. Permanent forwarding also only lasts for a year. The only difference is that the USPS notifies everyone of your new address for permanent forwarding, but not for temporary. Just keep an eye out for any forwarded mail and notify the sender yourself if it’s something you want to keep receiving.

bobmcnamara 2y ago

Can I FOIA everyone's address?

0xDEADFED5 2y ago
You can buy the available USPS data. pricing is here: https://postalpro.usps.com/address-quality/AIS_Products_Pricing https://postalpro.usps.com/address-quality/AIS_Products_Pric...
- ghaff 2y ago
  Probably also voter registration information in your state. And I'm sure there are real estate databases. And while much less applicable with the decline of landlines, most people's addresses used to be published annually in the white pages delivered to everyone. Your address just wasn't considered to be sensitive information for the most part historically.
- bobmcnamara 2y ago
  I don't want to buy government records, I want to pay no more than a reasonable data copying fee. I've already paid my share as a tax paying citizen.
  - Aloisius 2y ago
    The taxes you paid don't fund USPS though.
    - bobmcnamara 2y ago
      To be pedantic, I pay federal taxes which are then loaned to the USPS with no expectation of being paid back, as well as P.O. box fees because the nearest no-fee pickup is at the county seat, as well as subsidizing the USPS exemption through local property taxes that have to absorb that overhead. None of which are delivery related.
- Aloisius 2y ago
  That data doesn't appear to have personal names or anything else that can be used to connect them to a specific individual. It's just all the addresses they deliver to with things like building type, schedules, route ids, etc.