(NationRise.com) – According to recent reports, the US Postal Service (USPS) gave thousands of addresses, names, and many other details from packages and letters of Americans to law enforcement agencies without any court approval.
While the USPS explained that it usually granted data requests to American law enforcement when it aided in tracking down a criminal, records showed that nearly 98 percent of the last 60,000 requests were formally approved in eight years.
Records also revealed that more than 312,000 packages and letters were illegally recorded between 2015 and 2023, and not even one of them received judicial approval. In the 2015 audit, the main requesters were revealed as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of Homeland Security, and the Internal Revenue Service.
In a statement, Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said that the statistics confirm that thousands of US citizens have been subjected to “warrantless surveillance” every year. He added that another concerning fact that the statistics revealed was that the USPS’ Inspection Service “practically” approves every single request they receive from law enforcement agencies.
In a May 2023 public letter, eight senators from both parties asked the USPS to get the approval or permission of a federal judge before starting to record personal data. The eight senators claimed in their letter that the “surveillance” of the data threatens not only the privacy of every American but also each of their “First Amendment rights” to associate with any religious group or political organization without the government spying.
Responding to the letter, Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale denied allegations that the USPS was somehow part of a “surveillance apparatus,” claiming that any information displayed on the exterior of a mail couldn’t be considered private.
The 2015 audit also revealed that while the Postal Inspection Service has denied any wrongdoing, it has also declined to disclose the exact number of Americans who have been subject to the surveillance.
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