Questions are being asked of the United States Postal Service after the release of an audit confirming that roughly 49,000 pieces of mail were monitored by the agency during the last fiscal year.
The New York Time’s Ron Nixon reported on Monday this week that a 2014 audit of the USPS’s little-known surveillance program showed that nearly 50,000 pieces of mail were scrutinized during a 12-month span upon the request of authorities using a tactic called a “mail cover.”
But while the USPS green-lighted tens of thousands of these requests made by law enforcement agencies in the last year pursuant to criminal and national security investigations, the Times reported, the protocols in place for authorizing such scans are reportedly ripe with flaws.
“Insufficient controls,” as identified in the audit, “could hinder the Postal Inspection Service’s ability to conduct effective investigations, lead to public concerns over privacy of mail and harm the Postal Service’s brand,” Nixon quoted from the report.
Additionally, the audit found that "responsible personnel did not always handle and process" those requests on par with the agency’s established rules. Full story...
Related posts:
The New York Time’s Ron Nixon reported on Monday this week that a 2014 audit of the USPS’s little-known surveillance program showed that nearly 50,000 pieces of mail were scrutinized during a 12-month span upon the request of authorities using a tactic called a “mail cover.”
But while the USPS green-lighted tens of thousands of these requests made by law enforcement agencies in the last year pursuant to criminal and national security investigations, the Times reported, the protocols in place for authorizing such scans are reportedly ripe with flaws.
“Insufficient controls,” as identified in the audit, “could hinder the Postal Inspection Service’s ability to conduct effective investigations, lead to public concerns over privacy of mail and harm the Postal Service’s brand,” Nixon quoted from the report.
Additionally, the audit found that "responsible personnel did not always handle and process" those requests on par with the agency’s established rules. Full story...
Related posts:
- ‘Facebook a gift to intelligence agencies’ - Laura Poitras
- Edward Snowden: State surveillance in Britain beyond anything seen in the US...
- Thousands of Germans rally to end government spying...
- NSA collecting millions of faces from web images...
- How the NSA & FBI made Facebook the perfect mass surveillance tool...
No comments:
Post a Comment