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Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

informeddelivery.usps.com

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Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#141

Post by tzs »

secabeen wrote: post #41
sl1ck731 wrote: post #37

This has been great for deciding if I want to walk out to the mailbox in the winter or not. But I believe signing up for this caused me to get a ton of junk mail. There is something about either forwarding/address changing or this informed delivery that allows USPS to sell your new address to junk mailers. I signed up for both at the same time and was flooded with new junk mail the day I moved in. It gives me a serio…

It's the forwarding/address changing. They sell that DB widely, so that companies can update their records within the forwarding window. Junk mailers buy it too.

Credit reporting agencies also get it. I had a change of address for a neighbor mistakenly applied to me [1], and now my credit report claims I briefly lived at their new address.

Mostly not a problem, except when a site does the "ask questions about your credit report to verify identity" thin, and asks about prior addresses I need to watch for that address.

[1] Briefly, me and the neighbors have the same last name. I'm at address 537 Our Street, and they are at 567 Our Street. They submitted a change of address form for 567 Our Street. It turns out the house they live in belonged to the wife before they got married, and in the post office records it is still listed under her maiden name.

So when they filed the change of address, someone at the PO noticed that the name did not match the records for 567, but did match for 537, assumed that it was from me and I had botched entering the address, "fixed" it, and processed it.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#143

Post by woolvalley »

crazygringo wrote: post #38

I tried signing up for this 3 months ago, and was shocked to receive images for the mail of literally everyone in my building (I'm one of seven apartments). Huuuge privacy violation. (It's just images of the envelopes, but that still tells you a lot.) I unsubscribed and then went to file feedback, and got an immediate reply explaining this was by design : > Thank you for participating in Informed Delivery®. You recen…

At my apartment building, I only get the email for my unit's mail, not everyone's. Sounds like a bug like other people said.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#144

Post by Scoundreller »

PaulHoule wrote: post #85
crazygringo wrote: post #38

I tried signing up for this 3 months ago, and was shocked to receive images for the mail of literally everyone in my building (I'm one of seven apartments). Huuuge privacy violation. (It's just images of the envelopes, but that still tells you a lot.) I unsubscribed and then went to file feedback, and got an immediate reply explaining this was by design : > Thank you for participating in Informed Delivery®. You recen…

I live in a rural area on a plot of land that has two houses and a total of three housing units on it. We get our mail in one mailbox. When I signed up for Informed Delivery I was told that I couldn't get it because I was an improperly coded housing complex. I asked my postmistress about it and she told me that that was because we get the mail in one box and that we could have it coded correctly if we got three boxes…

Drill a few more slots into the same bin and label each one “separately”.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#145

Post by [deleted] »

ams6110 wrote: post #104
crazygringo wrote: post #38

I tried signing up for this 3 months ago, and was shocked to receive images for the mail of literally everyone in my building (I'm one of seven apartments). Huuuge privacy violation. (It's just images of the envelopes, but that still tells you a lot.) I unsubscribed and then went to file feedback, and got an immediate reply explaining this was by design : > Thank you for participating in Informed Delivery®. You recen…

I frequently get actual mail addressed to my neighbors, so IMO that's a worse problem than seeing the images of the envelopes or packages. I also don't know what problem this really solves. Grasping at straws for the USPS to remain relevant I think. Big waste of money in my opinion.

[deleted]

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#146

Post by tzs »

meej wrote: post #124
gergles wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no feedback loop for most mail you don't want. Anything "standard" (or "STD") in the postage area will just be thrown away if you put it back in the mail stream. You'll also have to deal with every catalog being sent to "OR CURRENT RESIDENT". The prior owners of my place still get on average 9-10 pieces of mail a week here, and I just have to throw it all out. If one sender is especially egregious, I will co…

When I lived in Seattle's Central District, my local Post Office branch had a drop box in the lobby for any mail you received that was addressed to previous residents. I used to collect anything that seemed important and I would drop it off periodically. This is not something I've seen at many other Post Offices, curiously.

Interesting. We've got one labeled for misfiled mail. I'm not sure what happens if you drop mail in there that was for a previous owner of your PO box.

Speaking of misfiles, I've got a PO box in Poulsbo, WA, 98370. I received a letter that was address to that box number...but in Cleveland, TN, 37320.

How the heck could a letter end up that far off? The label was printed, not handwritten, and the printer wasn't running out of ink or skipping or anything like that. There is nothing whatsoever unclear about it, so no way was it a reading error.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#147

Post by abruzzi »

stetrain wrote: post #35
SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What decision or choices do you make based on that new data stream? What is the advantage, because I really don’t get the idea. Edit: I see below; that theft awareness and not having to go check the mailbox are the features... ok, I guess. I have trouble believing that this applies to so many people they need to support a public facing service for it.

It matters more when you don't have a personal mailbox at your residence and instead have to go to a shared mailbox center for your street / apartment complex. Also many people have P.O. boxes at a separate mail center location where going to check your mail means actually getting in a car and driving across town.

Where I live there is no home delivery of mail, so all my mail goes to a PO box, so this is a huge boon to me. The only problem is international mail doesn't show up in the system, so when I'm getting a package from Japan, New Zealand, or elsewhere, I get no notification, and have to revert to the tracking number.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#148

Post by 0xffff2 »

PascLeRasc wrote: post #113
ams6110 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I frequently get actual mail addressed to my neighbors, so IMO that's a worse problem than seeing the images of the envelopes or packages. I also don't know what problem this really solves. Grasping at straws for the USPS to remain relevant I think. Big waste of money in my opinion.

It solves the problem of wasted energy delivering mail people don't want, like junk mail/spam. I'd be very interested to see how much wasted paper and gas goes into producing and delivering junk mail. Mail processing centers already use computer vision to see where a parcel's going instead of manually sorting, so this is a logical step forward.

>It solves the problem of wasted energy delivering mail people don't want, like junk mail/spam.

Even if that was true, which it isn't as far as I can tell, that would be counter to the USPS's goals. They make a lot of their money delivering junk mail.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#149

Post by 0xffff2 »

wolfpwner wrote: post #87
crazygringo wrote: post #38

I tried signing up for this 3 months ago, and was shocked to receive images for the mail of literally everyone in my building (I'm one of seven apartments). Huuuge privacy violation. (It's just images of the envelopes, but that still tells you a lot.) I unsubscribed and then went to file feedback, and got an immediate reply explaining this was by design : > Thank you for participating in Informed Delivery®. You recen…

True, I live in an apartment with a roommate. I also see his incoming mails

Don't you also see his incoming mail (or he yours) every time one of you checks your mailbox?

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#150

Post by [deleted] »

jlarocco wrote: post #65
crazygringo wrote: post #38

I tried signing up for this 3 months ago, and was shocked to receive images for the mail of literally everyone in my building (I'm one of seven apartments). Huuuge privacy violation. (It's just images of the envelopes, but that still tells you a lot.) I unsubscribed and then went to file feedback, and got an immediate reply explaining this was by design : > Thank you for participating in Informed Delivery®. You recen…

I don't see the privacy violation. The outside of envelopes are publicly viewable by design so that they can be delivered. If you don't want others to know who's mailing you, ask the sender not to place their name and address on the envelope. But the situation isn't hard to understand. The entire building has a single code, and the delivery guy is responsible for inserting mail into the individual lock boxes, and he…

[deleted]
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