Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

news.yahoo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 261 posts

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#61

Post by realityIsntHere »

GCA10 wrote: post #47

Lots of sentiment today that the USPS is way out of its zone of expertise in doing this -- and that is possible. But it's worth noting that the USPS has had its own legion of postal inspectors going back to the 19th century, when they were a (comparatively) huge part of the U.S. government, and the FBI, etc. did not exist. Some 1,200 postal inspectors are still around, and they play important roles on federal prosecu…

A total monopoly on daily mail and we get snooped.

I can't tell if this is corruption or genuine work.

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#62

Post by wtallis »

shadowgovt wrote: post #48
_-david-_ wrote: post #14

It seems like this should be the job of the FBI, DHS or some other agency like that. The Post Office should deliver mail and packages not investigate material on the internet.

The postal service, as a Constitutionally-mandated requirement of the federal government (though the post itself is a private company, responsibility for ensuring there is a post and that it works is Congress's), is some very old and very serious law and enforcement. The Postal Inspection Service traces its lineage to 1772; the FBI to 1908. USPIS being separate from the FBI is one of those quirks of American enforcem…

> Constitutionally-mandated requirement of the federal government

The constitution says: "The Congress shall have Power [...] To establish Post Offices and post Roads;"

This is not a constitutional mandate. It is constitutional authorization. The federal government is not obligated to fully exercise every power it is granted.

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#63

Post by TameAntelope »

One thing I haven't really seen discussed (or maybe I'm just blind) is the fact that the USPS isn't a government organization quite like the others. It's supposed to be a more-private entity that competes in a market.

Feels weird to give them law enforcement powers while still putting them up against private industry as competition, couldn't they just arrest all the UPS workers or something (gross oversimplification but still)?

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#64

Post by wombatmobile »

snowwrestler wrote: post #45

Pretty much any federal agency you have heard of has an investigative dept that employs federal special agents. These are law enforcement roles with the same training, authority, and responsibilities as investigative agents in the FBI, etc. They were created to meet the specific law enforcement needs of each agency. Dept of Education agents investigate misuse of Dept of Education funds, for example. The Postal Inspec…

> I will say that personally I have fewer concerns about programs to monitor public content on the Internet, than programs that seek to access, monitor, and store content that people intended to be privately communicated to other people.

You may have fewer concerns about public monitoring vs private spying, presumably because in the latter case privacy is being violated in a way that isn't the case for the former.

But both cases are nefarious, and you don't have to choose between them.

Both are examples of using public funds to abuse access to information from end users for political purposes.

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#65

Post by Scoundreller »

snowwrestler wrote: post #45

Pretty much any federal agency you have heard of has an investigative dept that employs federal special agents. These are law enforcement roles with the same training, authority, and responsibilities as investigative agents in the FBI, etc. They were created to meet the specific law enforcement needs of each agency. Dept of Education agents investigate misuse of Dept of Education funds, for example. The Postal Inspec…

If they're disinterested in private comms, it's because they're very interested in public comms. If they're wondering what the public thinks and would make improvements, great, but if they're targeting the public because what they say is too true to handle, ugh.

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#66

Post by jdavis703 »

_-david-_ wrote: post #44
mattmanser wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, look at it from totally the opposite direction to see their point of view. Your workers are under threat from poorly made postal bombs that could easily blow up during processing, killing your workers. Due to the vast volume of post you process, the threat is real and non-trivial. Do you do nothing? I think you obviously have to do something, whether you go as far as they did is what's up for debate.

If there is a bomb threat why can't the FBI or DHS investigate? That is the entire purpose of those agencies. Should every government agency have a department to investigate threats towards their employees? Why limit it to just the USPS? Why not give investigative powers to the Agency for Global Media or the Administration for Community Living? Should those employees have to risk the very "real and non-trivial" threa…

Agency for Global Media has their own law enforcement that investigates threats against the agency and it’s personnel. This ranges from securing HQ against protests to investigating what happens to broadcast infrastructure in war zones like Afghanistan to securing classified information.

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#68

Post by TheRealPomax »

GCA10 wrote: post #47

Lots of sentiment today that the USPS is way out of its zone of expertise in doing this -- and that is possible. But it's worth noting that the USPS has had its own legion of postal inspectors going back to the 19th century, when they were a (comparatively) huge part of the U.S. government, and the FBI, etc. did not exist. Some 1,200 postal inspectors are still around, and they play important roles on federal prosecu…

Sure, but the 19th century ended over 120 years ago. So that's kind of not relevant to how they're structured and operate today?

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#69

Post by JKCalhoun »

GCA10 wrote: post #47

Lots of sentiment today that the USPS is way out of its zone of expertise in doing this -- and that is possible. But it's worth noting that the USPS has had its own legion of postal inspectors going back to the 19th century, when they were a (comparatively) huge part of the U.S. government, and the FBI, etc. did not exist. Some 1,200 postal inspectors are still around, and they play important roles on federal prosecu…

Can't help thinking of W.A.S.T.E. though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crying_of_Lot_49

Re: The USPS is running a 'covert' program to monitor Americans' social media posts

#70

Post by bigth »

I'm surprised by the comments here. People seem clueless to real threats the USPS faces and are puzzled why they have inspectors.

Last year or maybe it was 2019 a delivery worker was murdered. Agg robberies of delivery workers has been going up. Breaking into mail boxes and mail theft has been going up. Using mail service to conduct fraud and other criminal transactions is going up. I'm on mobile so it's hard to get the links but just google it, not hard to find.

Post reply on HN