USPS Service Kiosks Taking Pictures of Customers

NW writes "According to FOIA documents obtained by EPIC new Postal Service self-service postage machines take portrait-style photographs of customers and retain them for 30 days." IBM is the contractor behind the kiosks. Note that the kiosk is supposed to not complete the transaction if it determines the photograph has been compromised, so simply covering the camera is unlikely to work. As the cost of cameras and digital storage approaches zero, is it inevitable that every machine you interact with will take your photograph and store it?

Comments

why?

[Jane_the_Great]

"Note that the kiosk is supposed to not complete the transaction if it determines the photograph has been compromised, so simply covering the camera is unlikely to work."

Why would you need to defeat this system? For 100% of the mail I send, my name is on it. If I were attempting to mail information on some government coverup to the newspaper, I'd be doing it by proxy anyway.

I am very interested in why people would be trying to figure out how to defeat this setup. It seems like the only people who would need to not be photographed are going to be causing trouble. There should be no expectation of privacy when you're in public mailing something.