Kevin Kosar on Postal Service Mail-Tracking
Last week, the New York Times reported there were nearly 50,000 incidents of mail surveillance in 2013. Under the "mail cover" program, which has been around for roughly a century, federal, state and even local law enforcement officials can trace a target's mail using data collected from the outside of an envelope or a parcel, including sender and recipient, addresses, and where the mail entered the postal system. Such tracking has reportedly been conducted without proper authorization and for troubling purposes. What, asks the R Street Institute's Kevon Kosar, do public officials plan to do about this invasion of our privacy?
