EVERYDAY SURVEILLANCE?
This is not an April Fool's joke...
Most people, especially those who are law-abiding, rarely consider the inroads made by the regime’s surveillance state and the extent of their data collection activities. So I was surprised that the United States Postal Service was conducting surveillance on protests and other matters having little or nothing to do with the delivery of mail and protecting the sanctity of your communications.
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Inspector General: Postal inspectors’ spying overstepped law enforcement power. What We Found We determined that certain proactive searches iCOP conducted using an open-source intelligence tool from February to April 2021 exceeded the Postal Inspection Service’s law enforcement authority. Furthermore, we could not corroborate whether other work analysts completed from October 2018 through June 2021 was legally authorized. The Postal Inspection Service’s activities must have an identified connection to the mail, postal crimes, or the security of Postal Service facilities or personnel (postal nexus) prior to commencing. However, the keywords used for iCOP in the proactive searches did not include any terms with a postal nexus. Further, the postal nexus was not documented in 122 requests and 18 reports due to a lack of requirements in the program’s procedures. The keywords iCOP used for one of the profiles during this time did not include any terms related to the mail, postal crimes, or security of postal facilities or personnel. Examples of the keywords include “protest,” “attack,” and “destroy.” According to the program manager, iCOP intentionally omitted terms that would indicate a postal nexus in an effort to broadly identify threats that could then be assessed for any postal nexus. <Source> [OCS: This excuse is ludicrous because it is analogous to searching a dump to discover the contents of an individual’s trashcan.] |
Most people have no clue…
How many people are familiar with the little-known “Informed Delivery by USPS program? “A program that would allow postal patrons access to the electronic collection of your mail’s address collection. That’s right! The government captures information (metadata) from much of the mail flowing through the system. This is different from address tracking information from requested tracking receipts.
Yes, you can now see what is sent to you before delivery! The U.S. Postal Service will send digital images of incoming letters on days mail is delivered -- and the service, called Informed Delivery, is free.
I wonder how long it might be before the quasi-governmental privatized Postal Service decides to sell the information to advertisers and sponsor paid advertising campaigns to generate revenue.
Bottom line…
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” A Latin phrase translated as “Who will guard the guards themselves?” is attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal from his Satires (Satire VI, lines 347-348).
The fundamental flaw in most Inspector General programs is that they have investigatory powers limited to the confines of their agency and cannot pursue inter-agency investigations – and are limited to interviewing only current employees. IGs can suggest fixes but do not have the power to enforce their recommendations and can only make criminal referrals to the hyper-politicized Department of Justice, where they often languish and die.
We are so screwed.
-- steve
“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw
“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”
“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius “A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell “Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar “Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS