U.S. Postal Service To Develop 'Intelligent Mail' 345
securitas writes "The President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service's final report (PDF) has recommended that the USPS and the Department of Homeland Security develop sender identification technology for all U.S. mail. The commission said Intelligent Mail could bolster security and let consumers track the progress of all mail they send, which has been a top consumer demand in surveys. The report released July 31 reads, "Each piece of Intelligent Mail will carry a
unique, machine-readable barcode (or other indicia) that will
identify, at a minimum, the sender, the destination, and the class
of mail... Intelligent Mail will allow the
real-time tracking of individual mail pieces." Privacy advocates like the EFF and Center for Democracy & Technology are understandably concerned. The Final Recommendations are available in PDF format. More at Direct Marketers News and pro-privacy/civil liberties magazine Counterpunch."
Jamie adds: This confuses me, because I read a news story in late 2001 which matter-of-factly explained that authorities would be contacting recipients of letters which went through a particular post office around the same time as an anthrax envelope. The implication, which I haven't seen any discussion of then or since, is that records are kept of every letter's travels through every post office. Anyone know anything about that?
Update:
mec does.
Now all they need are (Score:2, Funny)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Make sure to go out and buy special $2.10 stamps to use with your existing $0.37 ones.
Re:Now all they need are (Score:3, Funny)
The postman said "You shouldn't write No Such Address, this Address exists, you live here!"
I tried to explain that I wrote "addressee" and that the *person* didn't live here. That didn't work so I apologized for my 'error' and went on my way.
Bad Pun.. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:RFID (Score:2, Funny)
Years ago it was "too expensive" to have a computer in your home. Good thing nobody threw the idea out citing the fact that we already have "infrastructure in place" to use typewriters.
USPS should offer direct-mail spam-blocking (Score:3, Funny)
225 Shoreway Road
San Carlos, California 94070
Attn: Mixed paper recycling.
Re:Now all they need are (Score:2, Funny)
Dude, you're shopping at the wrong place. Home Depot has a very nice mailbox for only $6.99 and no ID is required!