A little-known U.S. Postal Service program dubbed the “mail covers program” has long provided information about certain Americans’ mail to federal law enforcement agencies, the Washington Post reported on Monday. While officials maintain that the program is only ever used to investigate criminal activity, it appears to get quite a lot of use with some Americans claiming they were targeted by the program, despite never having done anything illegal.
The mail covers program does not allow outside agencies to open a person’s mail, but it does allow them to see the information that is printed on the outside of letters and packages. A previously published document on the program describes a “mail cover” as an “investigative tool used to record data appearing on the outside of a mailpiece.” For obvious reasons, this could still provide quite a lot of information about a person under surveillance.
Some of the agencies to request information have been the FBI, IRS, Department of Homeland Security, and the Postal Service’s own investigatory branch, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. However, the Washington Post reports that “state and local police forces” have also been known to use the program. Best of all for investigators (and worst of all for the rest of us), there is no requirement for a court order or a sign-off from a judge to take a look at what’s on the mail’s label.
Just how often does the program get used? The answer is quite a lot. A previous audit of the program showed that the Post Office approved more than 158,000 information requests during one four-year period. Meanwhile, recent information turned over to legislators who were curious about the program showed that police agencies made “an average of about 6,700 requests a year,” the Post writes. Those same legislators, including Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have taken it upon themselves to ask for further transparency and better controls on the program.
The program pales in comparison to another known mail-tracking program, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, which is said to photograph the exteriors of every piece of mail that circulates throughout the U.S. Postal system. This program is ostensibly used for routing and organizational purposes, but it can be used for the purposes of law enforcement, according to a previously reported story by the AP.
Gizmodo reached out to the Justice Department and the Post Office for comment and will update this story if they respond.
