IP: The Postal Service Has Its Eye on You (fwd)

[Eugene Leitl]

-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://www.lrz.de/~ui22204/">leitl</a>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 10:14:02 -0400
From: David Farber <dave at farber.net>
To: ip-sub-1 at majordomo.pobox.com
Subject: IP: The Postal Service Has Its Eye on You


>Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 00:23:38 -0400
>To: Dave Farber <farber at cis.upenn.edu>
>From: Monty Solomon <monty at roscom.com>
>Subject: The Postal Service Has Its Eye on You
>
>THE POSTAL SERVICE HAS ITS EYE ON YOU
>
>By John Berlau
>
>July 14, 2001
>
>Since 1997, the U.S. Postal Service has been conducting a
>customer-surveillance program, 'Under the Eagle's Eye,' and reporting
>innocent activity to federal law enforcement. Could you already be a
>victim?
>
>http://www.moreprivacy.com/editorials/postaleye.htm
<snip>

One thing that should set off alarms, the postal service says, is a
customer objecting to filling out an 8105-A form that requests their date
of birth, occupation and drivers license or other government-issued ID for
a purchase of money orders of $3,000 or more. If they cancel the purchase
or request a smaller amount, the clerk automatically should fill out Form
8105-B, the suspicious-activity report. Whatever the reason, any
customer who switches from a transaction that requires an 8105-A form to
one that doesnt should earn himself or herself the honor of being
described on a B form, the training manual says.

But the suspicious customers might just be concerned about privacy, says
Solveig Singleton, a senior analyst at the Competitive Enterprise
Institute. And a professional criminal likely would know that $3,000 was
the reporting requirement before he walked into the post office. I think
theres a lot of reasons that people might not want to fill out such forms;
they may simply think its none of the post offices business, Singleton
tells Insight. The presumption seems to be that from the standpoint of the
post office and the Bank Secrecy regulators every citizen is a suspect.
Both Singleton and Nojeim say Under the Eagles Eye unfairly targets the
poor, minorities and immigrants  people outside of the traditional banking
system. A large proportion of the reports will be immigrants sending money
back home, Nojeim says. Singleton adds, It lends itself to discrimination
against people who are sort of marginally part of the ordinary banking
system or who may not trust things like checks and credit cards.
<snip>



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