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I think instead of doing such less important services, USPS could spare the energy and time to improve Post Office workers' work efficiency. Often you see a lazy employee dealing with 1 customer with simple package for 15 minutes.
Some uninformed customer who wants to send a FedEx package back to some store and can't figure out why there needs to be USPS postage to do this or some idiot that wants to send fresh vegetables to Romania. And the kind postal worker is attempting to explain that this cannot be done.
Or should I send this letter/package Certified Mail or Registered Mail or Express Mail or Parcel Post mail or Third Class mail. And expects the postal clerk to explain all of the differences.
Then proceeds to take out check book and write a check and then begin to add the check number and amount to check book.
A friend of mine who was in the Secret Service for many years told me that the USPS has been scanning our mail since long before 9/11. Now we're just being given the opportunity to see what's been scanned. If you opt not to participate in Informed Delivery, your email will still continue to be scanned.
I appreciate Informed Delivery. It lets me know when I should be receiving a check or some special mail. Then, when that mail isnt received in the next 2-3 days, I know it was mis-delivered and I can contact the sender and start the process of re-sending it. Otherwise, I might have to wait a week or more longer.
Three items in history got this going with US mail.
Ted Kaczynski
9/11
Anthrax Scare
Homeland Security has a big part of this.
My home never had a house number nor any home in my town before 9/11. This was true throughout the US before 9/11 in many small rural towns across America. Ted Kaczynski lived in a cabin with no street number and no mail delivery.
With the advance of technology the post office had developed LSM's (Letter Sorting Machines}. Machines sorting the mail. The LSM's came in generations. The first ones were quite rudimentary. But as technology increased the newer LSM machines can do everything including taking pictures of letters. Making your mail visible online is just an extension of this technology.
There are no secrets anymore. The government knows quite a lot about everyone. But as Jay Thomas (radio personality) stated multiple times the bigger concern should be about Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and other tech companies know more then the government knows about you. Remember, all emails are saved. Even if you close your Gmail account, Google still has all of your emails - forever.
Every cell phone has a built in GPS. No, not the GPS that gives you street directions. Built in to every cell phone so that the authorities can find you.
There are no secrets anymore. Technology is following you around all of the time.
I never gave the USPS or FedEx or UPS my social security number.
Some above are mentioning privacy.
So . . . . the post office has everyone's Social Security Number?
I'd be more scared about some rogue postal employee stealing you identity then viewing some letter you got from grandma !
Quote:
Originally Posted by unit731
Photo of letters/mail.
.....
There are no secrets anymore. Technology is following you around all of the time.
The concept of privacy is passe. The 'great database in the sky' has, or will soon have, everything about you and what you do... past present and future. It's the price society pays for all the cool little digital toys they use, wear, carry, drive, etc. Everything!!!
This is a good service for people who aren't home during the day and want to see beforehand what they are getting. On the other hand since it goes by household and not individuals, it means that if someone you are living with gets this service they see what all your incoming mail is and you lose your privacy from anyone living with you.
This is a good service for people who aren't home during the day and want to see beforehand what they are getting. On the other hand since it goes by household and not individuals, it means that if someone you are living with gets this service they see what all your incoming mail is and you lose your privacy from anyone living with you.
I am not following what you are saying. If someone lives with you and gets the informed delivery email service, then they already see the mail, or have access to it, anyway when it arrives so why would this be any different than before the informed delivery service? No one can get the service to a specific address unless they are registered with the USPS to receive mail at a specific address.
The only way they wouldn't have seen the other person's email before is if they each had their own personal lock box to that same address. And if that was the case then they would each have a different address because of their different lock box numbers so therefore their informed delivery service would be different. It is no different than an apt building with individual apt numbers. So in this case, all the mail goes to the same physical address however, they each have their own/different apt number and informed delivery service.
I love this service. Mail gets stolen pretty often in South Fla. I can see scan of what I am supposed to receive from the office before I get home, so if anything was lost or stolen, I would know. So far I have received the same day. They also show what should have been received on past days.
E.g. I did not receive the Drivers License that the DMV insisted they sent in the mail. Big hassle and had to request another and that it be sent to my office.
Had no way of knowing if it might have been stolen before or from the mailbox. They busted a couple in Boca last year for identity theft and they had hundreds of other people's DLs in their home. Same goes for credit cards.
This service is a great way to avoid identity theft. I totally commend the USPS for doing something right.
...This service is a great way to avoid identity theft. I totally commend the USPS for doing something right.
I agree but I dont think the USPS volunteered to do it. Since the USPS has been scanning our mail anyway since before 9/11, I'm sure someone in government forced it to offer us this service.
On a wishful thinking basis, it would be even more wonderful if, when seeing that some of it is junk mail, I could hit 'delete' and it wouldn't be delivered.
Worry about it or not, It's obviously a personal choice.
For me, I think it's dangerous. And for goodness' sake, why would anyone need to know what mail is going to show up today?
If you have something being delivered from say, Amazon, you will have that tracking info.
Why would you need to have a separate service telling you what will show up otherwise, randomly, in the mail? And take the chance someone could hack that info?
I just don't see the upside.
The gang mailboxes in my HOA and adjacent neighborhoods are being broken into at a disturbing rate. First time for mine was 5 weeks ago, it look a little over a week to get them fixed and often takes longer, meanwhile everyone had to drive to the post office to pick up their mail. Last Sunday it happened again. It occurred to me that this tip might be useful to others who have this problem or just have a mailbox located some distance from their house.
It is a real drag to have to go down to the post office or a remote mailbox to pick up your mail and find that there is nothing there but some junk mail.
To avoid this, I have found the FREE USPS "Informed Delivery" service very useful.
If you sign up for it they will send you an email every day which includes a graphic image of most of the mail that will be delivered to your mail box in the next day or two. For the most part they appear to leave out junk mail and only show you the first class and more important mail that is on its way. I have found this to be very useful even after our mailboxes were repaired 4 weeks ago. I don't bother to stop and check the gang mail boxes when there is nothing there but junk mail.
This also showed me the bank statement that was soon to be delivered to me prior to the last break in. So when I do get around to picking up my mail at the post office, I will know whether or not that statement was stolen in the last break in.
I hope you find this useful.
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