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USPS To Provide Personal Identity Certification
Zentalon writes "The United States Postal Service has announced that it will provide In-Person Proofing (pdf) to physically authenticate individuals before a digital signature certificate is issued to that person. This has a bunch of interesting ramifications; for instance, I could create a simple spam filter that only accepts mail from individuals and organizations that have an authenticated certificate. It could also allow for more secure financial transactions. Anyone know if any other national postal services are planning the same thing?" Funny, they don't seem to always know where to deliver so-called first-class mail ...
Shortly after digital signatures became legally equivalent to regular signatures in Germany, Deutsche Post (the German postal service) offered digital authentication. Last time I heard about it, it was being scrapped due to a lack of demand.
"Light is faster than sound." - "Is that why people tend to look bright until you hear them speak?"
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Actually a division of the US DOD? Bullshit. From the USPS web site:
United States Postal Service
The Post Office Department was transformed into the United States Postal Service, an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States. The mission of the Postal Service remained the same, as stated in Title 39 of the U.S. Code: "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 new Postal Service officially began operations on July 1, 1971. At that time, the Postmaster General left the Cabinet, and the Postal Service received:
* Operational authority vested in a Board of Governors and Postal Service executive management, rather than in Congress.
* Authority to issue public bonds to finance postal buildings and mechanization.
* Direct collective bargaining between representatives of management and the unions.
* A new rate-setting procedure, built around an independent Postal Rate Commission.
Title 39, the Postal Reorganization Act, also vested direction of the powers of the Postal Service in an 11-member Board of Governors. Nine members (the Governors) are appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. They serve staggered nine-year terms, and no more than five Governors may belong to the same political party. Governors are chosen to represent the public interest generally, may not represent specific interests using the Postal Service, and may be removed only for cause.
"Funny, they don't seem to always know where to deliver so-called first-class mail ..."
No, not very funny. Rather clueless. Did you know that the USPS has domestic airlines carrying mail?
I can't even count the times I've found stray (or lost) bags of mail in aircraft. One of my many job functions when I worked for a ground handling company was to make sure that mail for Anchorage actually got *on the right aircraft* and didn't wind up on a flight to Miami. We'd actually check behind the belly toolbox on that old nasty DC-8 looking for mail bags.
Ever seen a 55' truck back up to a DC-6? Yes, folks. Bulk loading 33,000lbs of mail into a friggin DC-6 bound for northern Alaska.
Sure, mail gets lost sometimes, but it's not always the fault of the USPS.
Delivery of a two-pound, 20"x15"x2" package from California to London:
UPS: $66 (2-5 days)
FedEx: $65 (4-5 days)
USPS: $15 (4-6 days)
You can guess who I went with. It took four days to get there.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Hong Kong Post office is teaming up with the government to offer the same thing, this has been available for over a year now. Refer to this link.
The Hong Kong Government has recently roll out a renew plan for all citizens to renew their ID card (mandatory, must be on the person at all times). This new ID card is a smart card which also allow storage of digital cert.
Because of this mandatory ID, the cert roll out plan (storage and distribution) is relatively easier than other countries.