It has come to light that the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been sharing sensitive information from thousands of Americans’ letters and packages with law enforcement agencies for over a decade.
This practice, known as the “mail covers program,” has been operating in the shadows, with the Postal Service’s law enforcement arm, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, historically declining to disclose the extent of its surveillance activities.
The mail covers program, which has been legally authorized since 1879, allows postal inspectors to share the names, addresses, and other details from the outside of envelopes and packages with law enforcement agencies without requiring a court order.
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This surveillance technique has long been used by the Postal Service to assist in tracking down suspects or gathering evidence, but its widespread use has only recently been brought to light.
According to the data obtained by The Washington Post, the Postal Service has received more than 60,000 requests for mail data since 2015, with an astonishing 97% approval rate.
This has resulted in postal inspectors recording information from over 312,000 letters and packages between 2015 and 2023.
The top requesters of this data include the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Homeland Security.
The Postal Service’s reluctance to disclose the details of the mail covers program has been a source of concern for civil liberties advocates and lawmakers. In a letter to the agency, a group of eight senators, including Ron Wyden, Rand Paul, and Elizabeth Warren, urged the Postal Service to require a federal judge’s approval for these requests and to provide more transparency about the program.
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In response to the senators’ concerns, the chief postal inspector, Gary Barksdale, defended the mail covers program, stating that it is not a “large-scale surveillance apparatus” and is focused solely on mail that could assist law enforcement and national security agencies in carrying out their duties and protecting the public.
Barksdale argued that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding the information displayed on the outside of mail.
Critics argue that even the exterior of mail can reveal sensitive information about individuals, such as their contacts, financial activities, religious affiliations, and political views.
In 1978, a circuit court judge warned that the mail covers could expose someone’s personal life “in a manner unobtainable even through surveillance of his movements,” effectively rendering “the subject’s life an open book.”
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The revelations about the mail covers program also raise questions about the broader implications of technological advancements in surveillance.
As digital communication and data collection become increasingly ubiquitous, the boundaries between privacy and security continue to be tested, with the Postal Service’s practices serving as a stark reminder of the potential for government overreach.
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