Invisible Privacy | Online Privacy

It scared me, when I first discovered this information some five years ago. I wondered what the purpose of this was, how long the pictures were kept on file, and whether or not the back of the envelope was also being photographed.

Thanks to a new friend inside the USPS, I now have the facts. Here is what happens when you mail a letter:

1. The front side of your envelope is photographed. At the same time, a fine color bar code is sprayed on the backside of your letter.

2. The image is then sent to a remote site, usually in another state where non-postal workers work at terminals and key in the bar code for that specific letter.

3. Your letter is then is processed through a machine that reads the light colored bar code on the backside and instantly sprays a regular bar code on the lower front side of the envelope. (However, if a letter already has a bar code on it, it will usually not have its picture taken. For example, mail from utility companies gets bypassed from this process.)

"I don't know how long those images are stored for," says my informant. "However, my guess is that it no longer than a few days."

CONCLUSION:

Normally, it makes no difference whether you put a return address on the front or the back of the envelope. However, mail handlers can make a note of the return addresses you are using, if they have a legitimate reason for doing so. If, therefore, you are concerned about certain sensitive mail, one suggestion would be to not include a return address on your outgoing mail.

A better solution, however, would be to use a ghost address for the return. That way, you will know if your letter failed to arrive. (It may be returned for insufficient postage or for an error in the address. These things happen to the best of us.) It will also prevent your letter from ending up in Atlanta, Saint Paul, or San Francisco, the USPS's three major mail recovery centers. Once there, your letter will be opened and examined.

Labels: ghost address, mail recovery center, mail security, MRC, return address, secret letters, secret mail