#EMAIL TO SNAIL MAIL SERVICE CODE#
The 20 pieces of mail scanned before and after the ricin letters allowed investigators to figure out they were probably sent from a particular zip code in Texas.ĭespite the fact that few people realized this was standard practice, it's been used to justify the other communication metadata collection revealed in the documents leaked by Snowden. If it doesn't include a return address, as with the ricin letters, it's possible to look at the pieces of mail around it for an approximate location. USPS holds on to its scans of the envelopes for who-knows-how-long and will hand it over to investigators if they need them.Īs with the high-tech spying on phone calls and emails, the postal tracking does not involve looking at the content of the mail, just at the outside of the envelope which reveals who it's being sent to and from whom (if they include a return address). Amusingly, "snail mail" is now the official term for the stamped stuff, even in the New York Times. "nail mail is subject to the same kind of scrutiny that the National Security Agency has given to telephone calls and e-mail," writes the NYT's Ron Nixon. Protip, NSA: Take a lesson from the US Postal Service and don't use the word "Evil" in your codenames.) Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement" as part of an operation called "the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program" (which is a lot less sexy-sounding than the NSA's email tracking program codename: EvilOlive. The New York Times followed up on that revelation today, confirming that the " U.S.
Court documents stated that the postal service " photographs and captures an image of every mail piece that is processed," allowing the FBI to track the poisonous letters sent to these officials back to a post office in the actress's home town. It came to light last month when the FBI revealed how it tracked down the Z-list actress (Shannon Richardson: you may have seen her as a zombie in The Walking Dead) who sent ricin letters to Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama.
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