How The US Post Office Killed Innovative Digital Mail Because It Disrupted Junk Mailers

from the killing-innovation dept

Derek Khanna has yet another story of how politicians and incumbents have killed off an innovative service. Though, amazingly, unlike in other cases where the killing is hidden behind totally bogus claims of "public safety" or "consumer choice," this time the politicians appeared to be very direct in admitting that they wanted the service dead because it upset incumbents. It's the story of Outbox, a service that would take all of your snail mail and digitize it (and, in the process, dump and unsubscribe you from all that junk mail). It was created by two former Congressional staffers who had seen how nice a mail digitization system could be in Congress. People who used Outbox loved it. All your mail digitized in an easy to review manner -- while also removing all the junk mail you hated? It was a great service.

But, the Postmaster General basically did everything possible to kill it. You really should read the full story, but it involves the Postmaster General calling Outbox's founders into his office. They thought that it might be about an opportunity to work together to provide the American public a much better service. But it wasn't:

When Evan and Will got called in to meet with the Postmaster General they were joined by the USPS's General Counsel and Chief of Digital Strategy. But instead, Evan recounts that US Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe "looked at us and said 'we have a misunderstanding. ‘You disrupt my service and we will never work with you.'" Further, "You mentioned making the service better for our customers; but the American citizens aren't our customers—about 400 junk mailers are our customers. Your service hurts our ability to serve those customers."

According to Evan, the Chief of Digital Strategy's comments were even more stark, "[Your market model] will never work anyway. Digital is a fad. It will only work in Europe."

While the USPS would not directly confirm this exchange (it also did not deny it), it did send Khanna a statement that pretty much confirms it, even if it tried to spin the way they explained it:

The Postal Service is focused on providing an essential service in our mission to serve the American public and does not view Outbox as supporting that mission. We do have concerns regarding the destruction of mail—even if authorized by the receiver—and will continue to monitor market activities to ensure protection of our brand and the value and security of the mail.

Khanna asked if any users had actually complained about signing up for Outbox and somehow having the "security of their mail" harmed. The USPS did not answer. Khanna also asked why the USPS wouldn't even give Outbox the option of continuing its service if they didn't "destroy" the physical mail. The USPS did not answer.

This story is shameful, but not unique. We see it all the time, though it's rare that politicians are so direct in admitting their real motives (though, as we've seen, some others have done so recently as well). But this is the constant struggle of disruption and innovation. Incumbents with business models that don't serve the public, don't look to make a better product. Rather they look for political ways to restrict competition and block innovation. The USPS destroying Outbox is just one in a long line of depressing examples.

Filed Under: corruption, disruption, innovation, junk mail, mail service, us postal service, usps
Companies: outbox

DailyDirt: The U.S. Postal Service

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The U.S. Postal Service hasn't been doing well for a while now. Even though it achieved its first revenue increase in five years, it still lost $5 billion in fiscal year 2013. This marks the seventh consecutive year of losses for the USPS, which lost a record $15.9 billion last year. Part of the reason is that people just aren't sending as much mail these days. Why send a physical letter when you can send a message online? The Postal Service's most profitable product, first-class mail delivery, has been going down -- mail volume peaked in 2000 and has decreased by almost a third since then. On the brighter side, it seems that people are buying more things online now, and the USPS's package volume has been on the rise. As the Postal Service struggles to survive, it will be interesting to see how it adapts to the changing economy in the coming years. Here are a few links to some things about the USPS that you may not know.

• The USPS has the nation's largest distribution network, with 461 distribution centers that are linked to 21 major network hubs, 32,000 local post offices, and 213,000 delivery vehicles. In comparison, FedEx has only six network hubs in the U.S., and its global network has only a quarter as many vehicles and a third as many offices. [url]
• The official USPS website actually has a comprehensive page of interesting postal facts. For example, ZIP codes were introduced in 1963 to make handling increasing volumes of mail easier. A related fun fact: The easiest ZIP code to remember -- 12345 -- is assigned to General Electric in Schenectady, NY. And each year, GE receives thousands of letters from kids who think that the ZIP code for Santa's address in the North Pole is 12345. [url]
• Sunday mail delivery used to be the norm. In 1810, Congress passed a law that required post offices to be open for at least one hour on Sundays (and when everything else was closed on Sundays, post offices became the local "taverns" where people would go get their mail and then stay on to drink and play cards). Then in 1912, Congress passed another law that forced post offices to close on Sundays. [url]
• Sunday mail delivery is back! As part of a deal with Amazon, the USPS will begin delivering packages on Sundays again. Sunday delivery has already started in New York and Los Angeles, and the service should be extended to many more cities next year. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: 12345, physical distribution network, post office, santa, snail mail, sunday mail, us postal service, usps, zip codes
Companies: amazon, fedex, ge

Old School Snail Mail 'Metadata' Still Being Harvested By The USPS And Turned Over To Law Enforcement/Security Agencies By Request

from the get-it-all,-just-in-case dept

We live in a wondrous age of technological advancement, where almost any form of communication can be instantly captured by interceding security agencies and stored safely away somewhere in Utah where it can be "questioned" at the agencies' convenience.

But the old school ways still have their charm. Various entities have intercepted snail mail since the days when it was just referred to as "mail." Not so much interception goes on now, partly because there's much less to intercept, but law enforcement agencies are still able to access scans of the envelopes of every piece of mail sent or received in the US, all without a warrant. Not unexpectedly, this "enhancement" to the "mail covers" program emerged post-9/11.

The NY Times has a good piece on the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, which was put into place following the post-9/11 anthrax mailings. It quite literally scans every envelope, post card, and piece of junk mail — some 160 billion pieces of mail a year. These scanners probably know more about the mail you receive than you do.

The Mail Isolation program is really just a super-beefed-up version of the USPS "mail covers" program that has been around for about a century, explains the Times. Mail covers are warrantless requests for photos of the outside of specific recipients’ mail.

Basically, a law enforcement agency fills out the request, and for 30 days (extendable to 120 days), it receives scans of all mail related to the subject of the request. Only the outside of the mail is provided, as opening mail would require a warrant. Authorities maintain that no warrant is needed for information on the outside of a piece of mail, as there can be no reasonable expectation of privacy. The USPS can deny a mail covers request, but rarely does.

The old "mail covers" program was targeted. The new, post-9/11 version isn't. Everything is photographed and anything can be requested by simply filling out a form. The argument is that there's no expectation of privacy seeing as any number of people will be able to view what's written on the outside of the envelope as it's in transit. Of course, people might feel their privacy is being violated if they observed someone going through a stack of their mail and taking photos of every envelope, but that's where the courts stand on this issue currently.

Unlike other invasive programs officials have defended by claiming they have prevented [insert number here] terrorist attacks, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program has at least been instrumental in taking down a purveyor of terrorist-like activity.

In a criminal complaint filed June 7 in Federal District Court in Eastern Texas, the F.B.I. said a postal investigator tracing the ricin letters was able to narrow the search to Shannon Guess Richardson, an actress in New Boston, Tex., by examining information from the front and back images of 60 pieces of mail scanned immediately before and after the tainted letters sent to Mr. Obama and Mr. Bloomberg showing return addresses near her home. Ms. Richardson had originally accused her husband of mailing the letters, but investigators determined that he was at work during the time they were mailed.

While that's comforting, the downside is that this system, like any other mass data collection, is prone to abuse. And what's considered not "private enough" to require a warrant can still tell the requesting party quite a bit about you.

"It's a treasure trove of information," said James J. Wedick, a former F.B.I. agent who spent 34 years at the agency and who said he used mail covers in a number of investigations, including one that led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California on corruption charges. "Looking at just the outside of letters and other mail, I can see who you bank with, who you communicate with — all kinds of useful information that gives investigators leads that they can then follow up on with a subpoena."

But, he said: "It can be easily abused because it's so easy to use and you don't have to go through a judge to get the information. You just fill out a form."

The postal service holds the power to approve or deny these requests, without any outside review, which means every request will sail right through. 15-20,000 requests come through each year related to criminal activity. The number of requests made for national security reasons hasn't been revealed.

In the post-9/11 security/law enforcement climate, it seems it's better to have everything and not need it than want something and not have it. This is all above-board and perfectly constitutional according to the courts, so if any of these entities want to dig through your mail for any reason, (perhaps as a form of political harassment) all they have to do is fill out the right paperwork.

Filed Under: doj, mail, metadata, nsa, scans, surveillance, us postal service, warrants

Uh Oh: US Postal Service Wants To Better 'Monetize' Its 'Intellectual Property'

from the this-will-not-end-well dept

Via Clay Johnson we learn of a "solicitation" from the US Postal Service for help in finding better ways to "monetize" its "intellectual property."

The purpose of this solicitation is to procure services to obtain a supplier who possesses specific subject matter expertise in the areas of intellectual property (IP) strategy, the monetization of IP portfolios and the development of Intellectual Asset Management practices. The purpose of this contract is to evaluate the U.S. Postal Service's ('Postal Service') current IP strategy and define the steps, based on current industry best practices, needed to develop a comprehensive strategy for developing, managing, and monetizing IP.

Now, the US Postal Service is in this weird space where it is not quite a full government agency, but not quite a fully independent operation (or it can be seen as either depending on how you squint). However, it is supposed to be serving the public, and becoming a patent troll (what this is really about) hardly seems like it will serve the public's interest. As is established under 39 USC 101, the Postal Service is supposed to be about serving the public interest:

The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the Government of the United States, authorized by the Constitution, created by Act of Congress, and supported by the people. The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities. The costs of establishing and maintaining the Postal Service shall not be apportioned to impair the overall value of such service to the people.

Separately, the law notes:

In determining all policies for postal services, the Postal Service shall give the highest consideration to the requirement for the most expeditious collection, transportation, and delivery of important letter mail.

I can't see how shaking down competitors like UPS and Fedex will serve that well.

And, of course, that's likely what this is all about. Everyone knows there is tremendous controversy over the US Postal Service and its financial situation (which is distorted by the way it is required to handle its pensions). So the USPS is desperate for alternate ways to get money in. From the brief quip in the solicitation, it certainly sounds like it's looking for ways to jump into the patent game and seek licensing revenue from others. The last thing we really need is the US Postal Service waving around patents, demanding payments from more innovative competitors, but it sounds like that may be what we're about to get.

Filed Under: intellectual property, monetize, patents, us postal service, usps

US Postal Service Sends Postage Due Bill To Guy Who Put Block Party Invites Into Neighbors' Mailboxes

from the usps-desperation dept

US Postal Service's (USPS) desperation is beginning to show. We already noted its new ad campaign that seems to focus much more on how bad email is, rather than on any additional value provided by the USPS. But now, it appears that the USPS is cracking down on illicit use of its mailboxes. As you may or may not know, under US law, home mailboxes (even though they're purchased by the homeowner) are technically property of the USPS, and it's actually against the law to put anything other than US mail with proper postage in a mailbox. But it's one of those laws that just isn't enforced very often. Lots of folks put things in mailboxes directly. For example... neighbors organizing a street-wide event.

But, apparently, the USPS has had enough of that. After discovering that a family in Connecticut planned a Halloween blockparty by putting invites into their neighbors' mailboxes, the USPS sent the family a bill for postage.

"One Monday I had a note it is illegal to put these in mailboxes. Day 2 I had a bill for assumed 80 in the box, times 44 cents for the stamp," the father, Jeff, told WFSB. "I haven't paid it yet. I'm trying to have the conversation that no one is willing to have."

At least they're not seeking fines as well. But is this really a particularly good use of the USPS's time?

Filed Under: mailboxes, us postal service, usps