The Postal Service is Running a 'Covert Operations Program' That Monitors Americans' Social Media Posts (yahoo.com) 104
The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly running a program that tracks and collects Americans' social media posts, including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News. From the report: The details of the surveillance effort, known as iCOP, or Internet Covert Operations Program, have not previously been made public. The work involves having analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as "inflammatory" postings and then sharing that information across government agencies. "Analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021," says the March 16 government bulletin, marked as "law enforcement sensitive" and distributed through the Department of Homeland Security's fusion centers. "Locations and times have been identified for these protests, which are being distributed online across multiple social media platforms, to include right-wing leaning Parler and Telegram accounts."
The gardener is fixing the sink (Score:5, Interesting)
Why is the post office doing this job? Isn't that the FBI's turf?
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addendum: or DHS.
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> Why is the post office doing this job? Isn't that the FBI's turf?
And the NSA. And I think I heard the CIA is monitoring more domestic traffic. And your local PTA.
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Importantly, who oversees the usps as they are one of few agencies granted in the constitution? As far as I can tell, it's their board, nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate (except the two positions elected by the board themselves) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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There's an interesting timeline and composition of the board. As this hasn't been discovered earlier and considering jan 6, there are reasons to believe a bulletin like this would have leaked to assume this is a new initiative. Currently there are 5 republicans and 2 democrats on the board (additional seats waiting to be filled).
Re:The gardener is fixing the sink (Score:4, Informative)
Why is the post office doing this job? Isn't that the FBI's turf?
There is a huge amount of duplication and redundancy in the US government.
For instance, the DHS has Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) which is a mini-FBI, run independently of the DOJ.
At a bigger level, the Navy has an army, and the Navy, Army, and Marines each have their own air force.
That reminds me (Score:2, Interesting)
After being called out she pulled the post and replaced it with another one... that had Navy Jets instead of ones from the USAF. I guess that's an improvement though.
Re:The gardener is fixing the sink (Score:4, Interesting)
...but supposedly the USPS is not a government agency.
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It's perfectly normal for a private company to have the President of the United States appoint its board members.
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Oh it's a government agency all right, just an independent one. It is specifically mandated to exist by the Constitution, its current form is due to an act of Congress. Prior to that it was a cabinet-level department of the Executive Branch.
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Who said it wasn't? It's literally defined and authorized in the constitution and has it's management team appointed by the president, who can also fire them if they perform poorly. It also requires congressional approval for things like stamp tax increases (the price of stamps are exactly that, a stamp tax).
It's always been a government function, just a mostly independent one.
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> Why is the post office doing this job? Isn't that the FBI's turf?
Plausible deniabilty? FOIA-resistance?
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> Why is the post office doing this job?
At this point the government could pay the Hamburgler to rob banks in broad daylight.
Anyone that pointed it out, even with full 4k video evidence, would be called a conspiracy theorist and the Hamburgler could go right on doing it.
The Post Office is the perfect cover. It's so obvious people would refuse to believe it.
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You thought that agents stopped by your house every day just to drop off mail? Nobody ever questions them walking up to houses, knocking on doors, and peering through windows. It's the perfect cover.
Post offices have ALWAYS done this. (Score:3)
Why is the post office doing this job?
Post offices have ALWAYS examined communications for domestic surveillance - at least since the invention of the modern postal service office in Rome (and probably back further, to the Persian, Neo-Assyrian, and Neo-Babylonian Empires, China, and Egypt.)
Rome's government had couriers carrying military intelligence, orders, and administrative messages and packages around the empire. Cesar Augustus made it available to the general population. Many of their messages were
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More to the point why does the Post Office have a law enforcement division?
Mail Fraud, attacks on postal employees, theft, etc
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Jan 6 showed that none of them are on the ball.
I didn't see this one coming. (Score:5, Funny)
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It's probably Trumps stooge that he put in charge of the USPS who started this program.
Re:I didn't see this one coming. (Score:5, Insightful)
The Postal Inspector is not new. However they used to focus on postal related crimes - counterfeit stamps, packages with dangerous our contraband content, various types of fraud.
It seems a pretty basic principle for jurisdiction/locus of concern should be: "Does this involve mail in some way?"
I am not saying we should not have postal inspector - but they should not be a parallel FBI
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Unless this started just a few months ago or more than four years ago, then it probably was started by Trump's stooge(s). If, 15 years after Trump's death, there is a problem specifically from something Trump did as President (hopefully silly example: sent postal service assassins to kill Chinese bloggers), then yes, it will still be Trumps fault.
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Do you have something stuck in your throat?
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Re: I didn't see this one coming. (Score:2)
What's that have to do with surveillance?
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> Of all the ways I thought the government might eventually turn us into a totalitarian police state, I never in a million years thought it would start with the US Postal Service
Ah, then you've never stood in line there in mid-December when you have a package to send and there's a line of 20 people, and then after waiting 45 minutes, the time clicks to 5pm, they roll the metal window door down, and say, "we open tomorrow at 9am".
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We have previously flirted with this with the laws popularly known as the Comstock Laws. Here's a Wikipedia link providing an overview.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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In Soviet America post office social network YOU!
Why not? (Score:2)
They already photograph the front and back of every letter and postcard that we send.
Re: Why not? (Score:2)
So? That does not include content, and there is no expectation of privacy if you write your letter on the outside of the envelope (or postcard).
How the hell did social media become an area of concern for the POSTAL SERVICE?
Re: Why not? (Score:2)
Oh, to protect post office buildings, of course!
"The Internet Covert Operations Program is a function within the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which assesses threats to Postal Service employees and its infrastructure by monitoring publicly available open source information,â the statement said.
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I hope you don't have a cell phone, since the NSA was collecting Meta data in bulk for several years. Similar to the name and adress information on your evelope.
And yet citizens complained. Why? [pbs.org]
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They already photograph the front and back of every letter and postcard that we send.
To be a little fair, they have to look at the front side to scan and process the address.
Otherwise, Mail Isolation Control and Tracking [wikipedia.org] is reportedly used primarily for sorting mail but also for retroactively tracking mail for law enforcement and was created after the 2001 anthrax mail attacks:
The Postmaster General has stated that the system is primarily used for mail sorting, though it also enables the USPS to retroactively track mail correspondence at the request of law enforcement. It was created in the aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people, including two postal workers. The automated mail tracking program was created so that the Postal Service could more easily track hazardous substances and keep people safe, according to U.S. Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe.
Here's a NYT piece from 2013: Postal Service Confirms Photographing All U.S. Mail [nytimes.com].
Both articles note this retention policy:
In confirming the existence of MICT, Donahoe told the Associated Press that the USPS does not maintain a massive centralized database of the letter images. He said that the images are taken at more than 200 mail processing centers around the country, and that each scanning machine at the processing centers only keeps images of the letters it scans. He also stated the images are retained for a week to 30 days and then destroyed.
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each scanning machine at the processing centers only keeps images of the letters it scans
I doubt those machines are the ones directly sending me Informed Delivery emails every morning with the contents of my incoming mail. Sure, each machine might only store its own mail - but those machines also send the pictures elsewhere.
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... the images are taken at more than 200 mail processing centers around the country, and that each scanning machine at the processing centers only keeps images of the letters it scans
So just add a high-res NMR scanner to the device and they can also read the contents without opening it [npr.org]
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You're not supposed to be using HyperText Transit via Postcard. You're supposed to use HyperText Transit via Postcard Securely. The only thing prying eyes can read is the zip code.
Could have sworn they keep claiming they're broke. (Score:3)
Also, WTAF?
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Broke?
You must be thinking of a time prior to governments distributing trillions of dollars to fight a virus.
Fucking nobody should be "broke" now, other than the taxpayers paying for it.
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Fucking nobody should be "broke" now, other than the taxpayers paying for it.
The taxpayers didn't pay for it. The cost was tossed on the debt pile.
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USPS is broke. USPIS isn't part of USPS, it's a separate entity.
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De Joy (Score:4, Interesting)
The sooner that guy is thrown out the better. I'd guess it's some weird right-wing nonsense because one of Trump's wouldbe deep state losers still hasn't been fired.
It's because how the Postal Office works (Score:4, Informative)
So thanks to how US Politics work and the extremely high standards Democrats are held to (helps that the other side has 3, 24/7 cable news networks and all of talk radio) we're going to see out Post Office slowly dismantled until the Republican party is no longer in power in any capacity... or until it's completely dismantled and privatized. Whichever comes first.
Just remember, like a lot of things, once it's gone it's never coming back.
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The point is the USPS is still ruled by a Trump political appointee who will be happy to do a bunch of shitty bits of nonsense and tear apart the post office, if for no other reason than he'll make money if it goes out of business. So Post Office is doing a weird thing trying to track down liberals on Facebook, needs to likely be viewed under that lens. I'm not saying there aren't reasons for not yet kicking that guy to the curb, just that when stories like this make you think there's a weird cancer in the
I doubt anyone's going after liberals (Score:2)
This is more likely than not what other's have said: Duplicate work being done by federal agencies. As for who they're going after, it's most likely foreign agents and right wing extremists of the sort that helped with Jan 6th.
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Don't post publicly what you don't want somebody t (Score:2, Insightful)
Seems like it's time for a bit of common sense. Public postings are for public consumption and that means absolutely anyone private, public, or corporate can read your public data and do what they will with it.
You want to keep it private, take it to signal and carefully vet who you let in.
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What? You mean I can't tell people I'm going to blow up...this balloon?
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What next? (Score:3)
The Coast Guard breaking our encryption and the Forest Service watching us through smart TVs?
Re:What next? (Score:5, Funny)
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If the Forest Service and the IRS merged, would they likely audit my logs?
Re: What next? (Score:2)
This is exactly how people joked before the NSA leaks.
. . . And then they got pulished. . .
Don't get me wrong: It *is* definitely ridiculous.
That we found out that reality was even *worse* is the horrifying thing.
Sorry, but if what you said would come out as reality, I wouln't even blink.
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The Forest Service plants... [wikipedia.org]
The Coast Guard piers [travel-ind...ionary.com] so it can sea... [wikipedia.org]
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You laugh, but you have no rights against search and seizure when it comes to the Coast Guard. The Supreme Court has upheld their broad authority to search and seize vessels in US waters.
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Then I suppose its a good thing I'm on Titan right now...
And what about us non-Americans? (Score:2)
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Don't worry--we'll get around to tapping your asses just as soon as we figure out how you guys provide universal healthcare for free.
Makes US sense (Score:2)
The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service
Of course. But I wonder what the military arm of said service has to say about that.
Protecting workers. (Score:3, Informative)
“The Internet Covert Operations Program is a function within the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which assesses threats to Postal Service employees and its infrastructure by monitoring publicly available open source information,”
It may seem odd but what they are actually doing is tracking when protests occur to ensure that workers don't end up targets of... shall we say, more aggressive protestors. The results are they shift what times the workers do deliveries near the areas of protest and maybe check if any USPS mailboxes have been damaged. My opinion is that it's good that they are looking out for our USPS workers.
It doesn't appear there is anything undue about the investigations. This seems like a non-story.
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Then why does it need to be shared with other government agencies?
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Then why does it need to be shared with other government agencies?
Need is a strong word. It simply says that they are sharing the information, not that it's being utilized by another agency.
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“The Internet Covert Operations Program is a function within the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which assesses threats to Postal Service employees and its infrastructure by monitoring publicly available open source information,”
It may seem odd but what they are actually doing is tracking when protests occur to ensure that workers don't end up targets of... shall we say, more aggressive protestors. The results are they shift what times the workers do deliveries near the areas of protest and maybe check if any USPS mailboxes have been damaged. My opinion is that it's good that they are looking out for our USPS workers.
It doesn't appear there is anything undue about the investigations.
I think you're reading a lot into their "explanation" and giving them a huge benefit-of-the-doubt
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I think you're reading a lot into their "explanation" and giving them a huge benefit-of-the-doubt
That may be but I also cannot think of any other reason (nefarious or legitimate) why such a program would exist. It's not like the FBI or CIA aren't also monitoring the web. Occam's razor suggests the simplest answer is most likely to be correct. What explanation do you have for this program?
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Would sound great....if the USPS were receiving that data from a non-postal branch of government. As far as gathering it, that's way out of scope.
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Would sound great....if the USPS were receiving that data from a non-postal branch of government.
You are assuming that another agency is tracking and specifically identifying protest times and locations. I don't think other agencies are that specific if they do not include dangerous individuals.
As far as gathering it, that's way out of scope.
It's likely the result of bureaucratic bullshit. There are a myriad of reasons why they aren't relying on another agency for accurate information.
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It's likely the result of bureaucratic bullshit. There are a myriad of reasons why they aren't relying on another agency for accurate information.
No there are not a myriad of reasons why they are not relying on another agency, you named the ONE reason - "bureaucratic bullshit".
I believe we do need a Postal Inspector's office. There are number of mail related activities that indeed are criminal or directly related to criminal enterprise that the post office itself is certainly best position to investigate either on behalf of or report to other agencies when they see something.
However tracking protests and such unless they are related to the PO itself seems pretty well outside what that scope can be. I have little doubt the FBI or other Homeland Security umbrella agencies are not already doing that. Why they can't provide that information to the PO to so it can keep mail carriers out of harms way, monitor facilities and assets appropriately, etc has everything to do with bureaucratic dysfunction. Which I believe is an nearly unavoidable function of scale.
Personally I remain pretty pessimistic about humanities ability to manage any organization with the size and scope of the US Federal Government. I don't actually think anything can be done to remove the duplication of effort, that is a problem that can only be shifted around. However breaking orgs like the PO up and pushing them down to State level (or maybe lower) would at least reduce inertia. Problems would be more local, fewer bodies would make it easier to effect changes and implement fixes. There are very few things it makes sense for a nation as large as ours to do at a national scale and delivering letters and packages definitely isn't one of them. State posts could easily aggrigate and hand off packages to each other for final delivery.
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No there are not a myriad of reasons why they are not relying on another agency, you named the ONE reason - "bureaucratic bullshit".
It's almost as if that's a classification for a type of reason. Ponder that.
However breaking orgs like the PO up and pushing them down to State level (or maybe lower) would at least reduce inertia.
That's incredibly inefficient, unconstitutional, and frankly, just plain nonsensical. You do realize that mail goes across the country without visiting every state in-between, right?
It's a good thing you have no say in this matter because you clearly haven't put much thought into it... or maybe you have and this is the result.
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if the USPS were receiving that data
Who would they receive it from? The FBI can't find their own ass with both hands [thenation.com].
really (Score:2)
u s postal office.
that moron that bought the job from team orange.
i wish you well
Previously undisclosed ... (Score:2)
The details of the surveillance effort, known as iCOP, or Internet Covert Operations Program, have not previously been made public.
Duh, because it's *covert* -- it's right there in the name. :-)
(Worst covert program name ever, btw -- unless they're being ironic.)
Okay? (Score:2)
Do they check on usps.com? (Score:2)
I've made a bunch of complaints about the incompetent mail carriers in my area. I hope they check their own web site too. It sure would be great if they were able to deliver the mail to the right box, even most of the time. In my neighborhood they just put mail in boxes, doesn't matter which one, as if the mail is not even addressed. Based on my experience, we have nothing to worry about because the folks at USPS cannot even read.
For the love of God, why? (Score:2)
I'm not even concerned about the sketchy surveillance as much as the waste of money. Why would this program ever be implemented through the USPS?
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Because the USPS is a private entity but is paid with public taxpayer dollars through a bizarre relationship from when the country was founded. If the government wants something done that has questionable Constitutionality (at best), funneling the project through USPS seems like a pretty good way to do it. "Oh, you want funding for snail mail delivery? You also have to do this thing for us that lets us monitor Citizens that we aren't allowed to do ourselves and would get us in a heap of trouble if we did
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Because the USPS is a private entity but is paid with public taxpayer dollars
Nope and nope. It is a part of the executive branch of the US government. Along with all of the congressional micro-managing and meddling that goes along with it. But aside from a few specially funded programs, it is on its own financially. Red ink and all.
Enough already (Score:2)
Lets just call a spade a spade and set up a Department of Illegal and Highly-Questionable Activities. No more need to tarnish the glowing reputation of the poor post office--let those dinosaurs go extinct gracefully. We could fund this new agency with a Thumbs Up Tax. Hear me out. Every time someone clicks Like or Follow on Twitter or Facebook or YouTube... ka-ching!... a dollar is withdrawn from their G.I. FedCoin account. (Fifty cents for thumbs down.) The DoIHQA could report to Congress annually on
Them creepy postmen (Score:1)
This is being implemented at USPS standard speed (Score:4, Funny)
The Postal Service is now analyzing dialup bulletin board messages from 1985. By 2024 it will be munching through CompuServe traffic.
Another branch of the Stasi? (Score:2)
Maybe they could be rationalized into one big agency to spy on everyone?
yeah right (Score:2)
Wait wait wait (Score:2)
So the postal service is a covert operations organization? The POSTAL SERVICE?
Wow. I mean, wow.
Back in the sixties there was this zany comedy who's big reveal was that the phone company was really a covert operations organization.
Life imitates art, I guess.
But really, if we can have a branch of the government called "alcohol, tobacco and firearms" (otherwise known as "Saturday" in the midwest) I guess we can have this.
Why not just deliver the mail? (Score:2)
Normally, news about the US Post Office is about its financial peril or about how service has been degraded -- either intentionally to save money, or accidentally because of inefficiency and incompetence. Now we hear that they are spending money to predict and track social unrest. How about taking this money and using it to deliver the mail on time?
PROTIP: Public posts are public! (Score:2)
This is like the Content Mafia "selling" a chunk of information to random people, and then bitching that everyone gets access to that information. If they were screaming it from tze balcony of the Vatican during Easter mass. ;))
Just hopping on board (Score:2)
“There are so many other federal agencies that could do this, I don’t understand why the post office would be doing it. There is no need for the post office to do it — you’ve got FBI, Homeland Security and so on, so I don’t know why the post office is doing this.”
Yeah, this. Leaving aside whether the government should be doing this in the first place, what possible connection does this have to the USPS? There was a whole decade, fueled in no small part by X-Files, that had this whole conspiracy theory that the government was secretly planning takeovers using FEMA. At a minimum this is going to fuel a whole new version of that exact sort of thing. Their explanation does not help:
“Additionally, the Inspection Service collaborates with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to proactively identify and assess potential threats to the Postal Service, its employees and customers, and its overall mail processing and transportation network...."
Really? This stuff is a threat to the USPS specifically? This might