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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?
How about wearing GWB rubber mask? or even Nixon for that matter.
Return of the ex-presidents.
This is not the sig you are looking for...
So does this mean that a paper bag over the head is not just for sex anymore?
People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
A privacy issue my g/f will care about. She hates having her photo taken!
with one of those big ass Barbie(tm) Heads. Or better yet - a Barbie head with a Bin Ladin mask...
I mean, think of all those terrorists that are sending massive shipments of weapons and chemicals via USPS kiosks.
"Lemme see, here. 200 pound, 6'x6' box, so I'll need about $300 in stamps..."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Clearly this is simply because USPS wants to make their own version of hotornot
It's to catch the terrorists, you see. We'll never violate your privacy (because you have none now).
The stamps were printed with my portrait on them.
Our new surveillance overlords...
If it can prevent crimes/terrorism, or at give the authorities a clue on who did sent what, i dont have a problem about getting my picture take.. Its already on dozens of other surveillance videos, and I havent seen people complaining about that..
I think the 30 day storage timeframe is pretty optimistic.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
of counsiling anyone who has to look at these pictures and realize how ugly we all are? Who hear goes to the post office dressed for success? Who? Tell me? I see that hand in the back row, thank you sir. The horror. The horror.
of me picking my nose.
Now I have to pull my tinfoil hat down over my whole face!
Do you cry everytime you go to an ATM too or do you just avoid going outside at all for fear that the evil picture monsters will get your soul?
OK. So explain to me how this is left wing drivel? I mean, the Right are the people who historically are interested in less government interference in the lives of normal people. It's the guys on the left with their bigger government/control everything mentality who should be happy about this.
So isn't this then technically right wing drivel?
People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
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?
Yes, it is inevitable. Dammit.
Thank God the cost of anal probes and specimen storage is not approaching zero.
- kgj
-kgj
Stand at attention, maggot!
On one hand, I value my privacy, and I dislike such intrusions.
Oh, we know what's in your hand, boo-boo, when you're in private. No need to clarify, Sparky. Now get on those knees and give me twenty!
It's a complicated issue with no simple answers.
Hah! Typical! We can't ba having this sort of mamby-pamby, nancy-boy, wibbly-wobbly, clap-trap, hoo-hah here, toots! Youse either for it or agains'it. This is Slashdot! Global repository of supergeniuses like "gamerdood69" and "spoogloriousspoo193" and "wileycoyoteesq"! No mistakes are made here! You will bow to the monochromatic wisdom!
So get your wet panties out of their twist, girlie, and pick your side.
--- Ban humanity.
Personally I want to be able to send a vibrating, two headed dildo, in the USPS mail to a random recipient without having the Post Office opening the packaging thinking it is a bomb because of the way I look.
You forgot to send batteries too you bastard!
Please keep in mind:
1984 is NOT a HOW-TO!
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
If IBM was the contractor:
A) it doesn't work
B) its probably not finished yet
C) it cost so much it will be scrapped at the next budget meeting.
I can't even count the number of projects I've seen bungled by IBM Global Services.
The cameras were originally included to solve one of the hardest technological problems with faithfully implementing a mechanical post office. It's necessary for the machine to recognize when the line of waiting customers has filled the entire lobby and is just starting to snake out the front door. That's the precise time that the machines need to pop up the cardboard "Closed" sign on all but one of their stations.
I once came across a postage stamp machine that was incorrectly set up. It had the 20 stamp booklets available for 2 cents each. I needed to buy stamps, so I saw that, was curious, and hit the button. Imagine my surprise when a booklet of 20 stamps fell out and the machine read that I had $4.98 still available.
:)
:D
Naturally, being the evil person that I am, I took advantage and cleaned out that slot. Ended up with over 200 of those little booklets and still got back a dollar.
It was a weekend, nobody was around, never got caught. And I'm still using those stamps to this day.
"Suck my dick!" --Ron Jeremy
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
stouch (adj.) So staunch, it hurts.
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
Back in college, I had a gas mask I had picked up at an army surplus store. You have no idea how much fun you can have walking around in public wearing a gas mask. I think the best was when I walked up to the Information desk at a book store and asked if they had any books on paranoia.
Redundancy is good And also good.
Ha! I found away around it. I just watched this freeky video a friend of mine brought over, something about a girl and horses, some lady brushing her hair.... Really weird, then some creepy kid called me right afterword looking for Kevin Hayes or something. I dunno, that was last friday, but ever since my face shows up all blurry whenever someone takes my picture. Take that technology!
BTW, if anyone knows how to disinfect monitors w/o breaking them, please drop me a line, flies keep coming out of my screen for some reason.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
stouch (adj.) So staunch, it hurts.
It's a perfectly cromulent word.
"In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user. You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser." -Weird Al