Saturday, November 30, 2013


THE GOVERNMENT IS WATCHING YOU!




Posted by consumer activist on November 30, 2013 
On the Sunday 7/15/13 evening national news for NBC there was a 4 minute segment about a revamped U.S. Mail program that the government has now admitted captures images of both sides of any post card, letter or package which is put into the USPS system.
This covers ALL mail, domestic and international. At one time the post office was considered to be the largest intelligence service of the government and watching the mail goes as far back as the Civil War.
The 'new' aspects of this program may well prove to exceed the authorization for such intelligence gathering as provided by the Congress.
Governmental spokesmen admit that all these images are saved electronically in case any address or name draws future attention. When/if that happens, the various agencies can pull up information to determine what mail was sent by or received by a person, firm or address.
The relevant text is about the 'Automated Facer Canceller System' (AFCS) and reads in part: 'The AFCS incorporates a 'Mail Isolation Control and Tracking' (MICT) program which photographs and captures an image of every piece that is processed.'

 (Misc:  as of Oct 2018 over 6 Million have signed up for this Informed Delivery program)
I don't know of any simple 'fix' to safeguard privacy but a few common sense things come to mind:

1)  No longer use a return address on your mail. Such return addresses have long been a feature promoted by the post office so if your correspondent is gone or the address is incorrect you will get your mail back. You might want to omit any such return address in the future.

2)  Modify your name for incoming bank statements, bills etc. Rather than using Dr. John J. Smith, ask your bank, utility etc to just use J. Smith. Don't give out any extra information for the government to copy and file away.

3)  Avoid getting mail at a 'home' address. This won't help all that much as all mail will still be copied but using a private mail receiving service can't hurt.

Do you recall who wrote to you in 2013 or who you wrote too?
Don't worry, the government knows.

They know:
Where you and everyone at your address banks,
Who insures your car, home and life,
What credit cards you and your family have,
Where you shop and who you order from by mail,
What friends you and your family have.
If you use those cute return address labels or a rubber stamp with your address on it they also know who you write too.

The government isn't just watching/recording all your phone calls they are recording all business and personal mail and packages by photographing mail as It's processed, and storing forever, information on the outside of all mail sent in the country.

This particular cat got out of the bag earlier this year via disclosures about the program originating from a government error and a later FOIA request by Leslie Pickering a concerned citizen in Buffalo, NY and reported on the Sunday 7/15/13 evening national news for NBC where there was a 4 minute segment about a revamped U.S. Mail program that the government has now admitted captures images of both sides of any post card, letter or package which is put into the USPS system.

As I posted 7/15/13 and 11/13 /13 on this site, the 11 year old high tech computer system covers ALL mail, domestic and international. 160,000,000,000 pieces a year (that is 160 Billion!).

At one time the post office was considered to be the largest intelligence service of the government and watching the mail goes as far back as the Civil War.

The relevant text is about the 'Automated Facer Canceller System' (AFCS) and reads in part: 'The AFCS incorporates a 'Mail Isolation Control and Tracking' (MICT) program which photographs and captures an image of every piece that is processed.'

This program is no longer 'secret' but has been reported on by various media in addition to NBC under headlines reading: "USPS Logs Mail for FBI, and It's Legal" at http://blogs.findlaw.com/…/usps-logs-mail-for-fbi-and-its-l…

Unlike the phone monitoring program such mail monitoring activities have already been through various courts and it has been ruled that information found on the outside of mail and packages can readily be seen by anyone and recording of the information is legal.

Originally these 'mail covers' were used to obtain data on specific individuals activities, now the program has expanded to scoop up ALL information on everyone on the basis that at some future time the information might prove useful in an investigation.

As with the collected phone data there is no set expiration date for deleting the data.

Unfortunately there is no constitutional 'right to privacy', perhaps there should be.

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11/30/13
Here are 2 items for your consideration regarding U.S. Mail.

1)  Further down this blog site at 7/15/13 (Tracking Your Mail) you will find reporting on the government program to scan and retain indefinitely all information on the outside of letters and parcels. You put your return address on something and it goes into the government data banks where it will remain forever or until your name (or one similar to yours) comes up and they take a look at who you have been corresponding with.

You have a health plan via Wellstar or subscribe to Comcast, then they know it and it is just a very short step for them to get hold of your medical records and find out what you like to watch on TV!

Suggestion: DO NOT put any return address on outgoing mail! Do not put any info on any envelope or package that you don't want to have in those massive government computers in Utah.

2)  Just for your own satisfaction, those postage stamps having US Flags on them - affix them upside down. It is a very minor act of protest but what else is left for us to do to show we are concerned about where we are going as a country.
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