Government Agencies Are Secretly Going Through Your Snail Mail, Too
Apparently the National Security Agency is not the only government organization violating Americans' privacy rights by collecting massive amounts of data.
Mass surveillance isn't limited to your digital data. Shutterstock
Apparently the National Security Agency is not the only government organization violating Americans’ privacy rights by collecting massive amounts of data. It turns out law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Postal Service are also looking through our mail. So much for the “sweet land of liberty.”
The New York Times:
In a rare public accounting of its mass surveillance program, the United States Postal Service reported that it approved nearly 50,000 requests last year from law enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to secretly monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations.
The number of requests, contained in a 2014 audit of the surveillance program by the Postal Service’s inspector general, shows that the surveillance program is more extensive than previously disclosed and that oversight protecting Americans from potential abuses is lax.
The audit, along with interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, offers one of the first detailed looks at the scope of the program, which has played an important role in the nation’s vast surveillance effort since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Read More.
—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata
Wait, before you go…If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what’s really happening and who’s rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.
Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn’t have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.
Support Truthdig
The long, slow destruction of the U.S. Postal Service is set to continue next week when 82 mail processing centers are closed and consolidated, despite calls from more than half the members of the outgoing Senate to stall the changes.
Pretty soon, you may have to walk all the way to your curb or a neighborhood "cluster box" to pick up the latest unsolicited coupons.
Struggling under the weight of mandatory future retiree benefit payments, the U.S. Postal Service said it would move to a five-day schedule in August to save $2 billion a year.
The U.S. Postal Service said Thursday that it is thinking about closing more than half of its mail-processing centers, which would eliminate more than 35,000 jobs, in order to turn a profit. (more)
The United States Postal Service can't pay its bills, and management is asking Congress for money and concessions, including eliminating 220,000 jobs. This, despite agreeing in May not to lay off workers. (more)
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.