US Postal Service Informed Delivery

According to information obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by The New York Times the United States Postal Service (USPS) approved nearly 50,000 requests in 2013, both internally and from state or federal law enforcement agencies at all levels, to monitor Americans’ mail. The USPS uses a program called Mail Imaging, which takes a photograph of the outside of every piece of mail sent in the U.S. While the primary purpose of taking the pictures is to process the mail, law enforcement agencies are able to request images of mail sent and received by a target they are investigating.

Now the USPS is letting customers access copies of the photographs of their own mail. Through a program called "Informed Delivery", users receive images of the outside of their household’s letter-sized mailpieces that will arrive in their physical mailboxes soon. Users can receive these images via email or by accessing their online dashboard at informeddelivery.usps.com.

While the USPS first started testing the free service more than a year ago, it’s finally rolling out (almost) nationwide for residential addresses. Now it’s available in almost every major metropolitan area, and soon Informed Delivery will be available in most of the remaining ZIP Codes covering the U.S.

While you still won’t be able to see the inside of your mail until it arrives, it should be helpful to know if an important letter is being delivered today or not. From a personal privacy viewpoint it is also important to be aware that a photograph of the outside of all envelopes (likely 1st Class Mail) delivered to your address is contained in the records of the scanning machines at the mail processing center that services your address, and now in the e-mail and web-site records used by "Informed Delivery".

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:
A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.