These Four Organizations Are Also Spying On You, And You Had No Idea
By Cezary Jan Strusiewicz
HuffingtonPost.com
11/13/2013
When Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency has been accessing phone and email records of American citizens, the news shook the world and changed the way many of us look at the issue of privacy in the modern age. For example, we’re no longer under the mistaken impression that it actually exists.
Unfortunately, it turns out that the NSA scandal is just the tip of a spying iceberg that’s ready to collide with your sense of normality and sink you into the dark waters of super paranoia, a not entirely unreasonable response to finding out that…
1. The Post Office photographs all your mail.
For 12 years now, the United States Postal Service has been photographing the exterior of every parcel that comes through their doors to determine how (but not “why,” seeing as FedEx exists) mail moves around the United States. It’s called the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program and it’s been in play since 2001, when anthrax was sent to politicians and news organizations through the USPS, resulting in five deaths. On average, MICT records around 160 billion images of your letters and packages a year, which the Post Office can keep around for as long as they want.
The Rest…HERE
