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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

#31

Post by sesutton »

rickyc091 wrote: post #7
kawfey wrote: post #4

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/11/u-s-secret-service-warns...

They've "fixed" the loophole by sending you a physical letter with a pin number that you have to input onto their website to activate the service. However, someone that's targetting you could still steal your mail with the pin.

Unless they changed it very recently you can still sign up completely online or have them mail you a PIN. They do still mail you a PIN no matter what so you can at least deactivate it if you didn't set it up.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#33

Post by nitrogen »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #27
dontbenebby wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The government can already open your non-first class mail without a warrant, and if its first class mail, I'm not convinced it'll be hard to get a warrant. But IIRC first class mail travels rather quickly. Now you need a warrant for the apartment/house because it was delivered before a warrant could be written. Much harder to get.

We could argue this all day. Let's not! I'm okay parting with some privacy and security for convenience to avoid losing paper mail, have it returned undeliverable, ease my management of receiving it, etc. It's not for everyone, but for my use cases, I desire it. Provide the service, and I'll be a customer for life. It only takes one lost paper bill or notice to make life painful for a bit.

Something like Earth Class Mail might be what you want?

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#35

Post by stetrain »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #8
omilu wrote: post #2

This feature is great. See a grayscale scale image of the envelopes and packages being delivered to your house everyday.

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.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#36

Post by toomuchtodo »

nitrogen wrote: post #33
toomuchtodo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could argue this all day. Let's not! I'm okay parting with some privacy and security for convenience to avoid losing paper mail, have it returned undeliverable, ease my management of receiving it, etc. It's not for everyone, but for my use cases, I desire it. Provide the service, and I'll be a customer for life. It only takes one lost paper bill or notice to make life painful for a bit.

Something like Earth Class Mail might be what you want?

I use a competitor of theirs, but am still holding out for USPS to provide the service natively.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#37

Post by sl1ck731 »

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 serious distaste for the postal service as an organization.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#38

Post by crazygringo »

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 recently reported that you are receiving images for other units in your apartment complex. This is due to the fact that your unit/complex is not coded down to a unique delivery point barcode, which is a requirement for this service.

> In order for the feature to provide mail images to the appropriate recipient(s), each multi-unit building on each carrier route must be individually identified and coded to the unit level. While most addresses are coded at this level, this coding process, especially in high density areas, is a work in progress. If you live in multi-unit building and you have successfully registered on usps.com ®, but the sign up process indicates that you do not have an eligible address, we are unable to offer you the feature until the coding is complete. Please check back at a later date.

It seems insane that if my building isn't "coded" I see everyone's mail instead of nobody's.

And it's not like I'm in the middle of nowhere -- I'm in Brooklyn, half a block away from an express train stop. And the post office knows about our different addresses -- I mean, they deliver mail directly into our individual locked mailboxes.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#39

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

dontbenebby wrote: post #25
SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I just didn’t see the attack vector clearly, but it appears Krebs and security issue is that a scammer can target you, sign you up for this, see that you are a CapitalOne account holder - THEN use that information to further attack you say by opening a new account at the same bank. Seems like a pretty flimsy side information gathering service. If an attacker has enough information to add an account for you, the…

I think the attack is that they can see a credit card is on it's way to your mailbox, then snatch it out of the mailbox while you're at work. Things like this are why I moved all my financial stuff over to a PO box.

How many attackers are local to you? This requires proximity obviously, I just have to think that’s even more rare.

Maybe there are niche credit card thieves that like to target just the area they live in. Seems like a lot of additional risk as now you aren’t just committing CC fraud but also mail fraud.

Re: Digitally preview incoming USPS mail and packages

#40

Post by dylan604 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #27
dontbenebby wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The government can already open your non-first class mail without a warrant, and if its first class mail, I'm not convinced it'll be hard to get a warrant. But IIRC first class mail travels rather quickly. Now you need a warrant for the apartment/house because it was delivered before a warrant could be written. Much harder to get.

We could argue this all day. Let's not! I'm okay parting with some privacy and security for convenience to avoid losing paper mail, have it returned undeliverable, ease my management of receiving it, etc. It's not for everyone, but for my use cases, I desire it. Provide the service, and I'll be a customer for life. It only takes one lost paper bill or notice to make life painful for a bit.

It's paperless for you, and you only. The paper was still printed, mailed, etc and is therefore still used. This is not a paperless transaction. You want to go paperless, then by all means do that with the actual people sending you things. Once you sign up to go paperless with the place you legitimately need information from, the only thing left is unsolicited mail along with the occasional card/invitation/etc. According to previous HN discussions on cards/invitations, the younger generation doesn't even want those. Those should come from a FB Event notice or similar. So, in that vein, you never need to be concerned about anything coming through the mail. It would all be unsolicited at that point. Oops, then there's jury summons...
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