Slashdot Mirror
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?
What is the point of this? I mean really, who is going to try to knock over a stamp machine. It's not exactly an ATM.
I would mod you up as funny/interesting if I could... what a great idea! Imagine taking your smartcard/flash/memory stick to the Post Office and getting 50 stamps with a picture of your choice... think this would be VERY popular around the holidays!
Of course, then the PO would have to pay more attention to make sure stamps weren't just stickers someone had printed off at home.
As far as the ATM example goes, that's different. We know that the ATM is taking pictures to protect us. It's the bank's security system implemented on our behalf. It means if someone steals our card and uses it, there's a greater chance of catching the culprit.
The Post Office situation is a little bit wierd. We've never had a system that guarantees a picture of the sender will be associated with a particular bit of mail, still more that the sender would be unaware of this. It has implications, good and bad. It's a little disconcerting the implementers were so secretive about it that it required a FOIA request to get the information.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I don't get it. I put my NAME on the packages I'm mailing. Why do I care if my picture is taken as well? If someone else mails anthrax with my return address on the box. I'll be happy the picture they took isn't of me.
Fix Your Own TV - RiddledTV.com Avoid the Landfill
What's the point of photographing the people who buy stamps? It's not like, when a stamp is used to commit a crime, you can track it back to the photo by serial number. Unless...
Anyone taken a very close look at a stamp recently?
Has there been a run of stamp-machines getting broken into? All of the stamp-machines locally are in post offices, which have video cameras in every corner anyway.
For that matter, is this a real privacy issue? Considering that you can buy stamps online, in your local hallmark store, or even through the mail to a P.O. box, I'm not too concerned about the post office taking my picture.
Now if they start putting cameras on the soda machines, then I'll get upset. And I won't even bring up the condom dispenser question...
Oops. Too Late.
Glad someone said it. The government has tried to use the "if you don't have anything to hide" argument for decades. It was crap then, it's crap now.
SINCE I don't have anything to hide, you should stay the heck out of my business. The US was founded on a strong distrust in everyone, the government included. Just look at the Constitution. With a few exceptions, it primary purpose it to protect the people from the government, and for good reason.
What's worse is the arguement that, since the government already has so much data compiled on me already, that this won't hurt... Are you sure? Don't contribute to or defend the problem just because you feel like you already lost.
I want my angy mobs in the street, dammit...
Ever hear of the UniBomber?
This is specifically because of him.
You used to be able to drop off a sufficently stamped parcel in any mail drop. After the UniBomber scares you were required to take packages over a certain size and/or weight into the office in person. This is simply a way to allow the conveinance of a mail drop with the security of personal delivery. A camera is already in my house (4 in fact) I controll them, no-one else.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
I worked on the software (the retail bit of it, not the bit that takes photographs - when I was on the project, that bit wasn't even there) for this piece of kit.
We had some great fun with the coin machine. We had bags of coins plus the coin/bill acceptor for testing. When work had been going on too long, I used to like emptying the acceptor of everything but pennies, then buying a 1c stamp with a $20 bill. The thing went off like a machine gun firing out pennies, it was friggin' cool.
It also did a bit of a Las Vegas style jackpot dispense with all of them full - in change it could give (IIRC, it was 1998 when I worked on the software for the pilot) quarters, nickels, pennies and Susan B dollars. (It didn't dispense dimes. I was told because dime dispensing is unreliable, and the machine tended to choke on them). Again, 1c stamp with a $20 bill, and Ker-ching - it simultaneously fired coins from all four coin stores.
At least I worked out what to do with surfeit pennies - instead of keeping them in a jar or bagging them up and paying one of those machines to count them, you can spend 1c coins in the postal vending machines (or could when I was working on them). Great way of getting rid of your shrapnel.
BTW: Whenever you take a package to a post office, if it's got IBM kit, you're using my code. I wrote the scale driver (amongst other things).
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin
:(){
The kiosk at my local post office is clearly labeled that pictures are being taken. Contrast that to the "black balls" you see hanging from the ceiling at most retail stores now.
Be aware of typical camera locations like this in case you need to validate your claim of being in a certain place at a certain time.
Actually, I was thinking of an Osama bin Laden mask - that will guarantee your package gets checked at customs!
___ This sig is in boldface to emphasize its importance!
dig out your usama binladen or tricky dicky masks and wear them when you use the machines... then see what happens. What can they do??? You have a right to wear a party mask in public??? surely you have.. or will they make that illegal too.
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
I love those Kiosks. Its great for mailing packages at midnight. Have to pay by credit card. However, you do not sign a receipt. So, maybe the picture could be used in a dispute? I know, I am reaching. Since the picture is kept for 30 days, and it can take that long to see an unauthorized charge, it can't really help in a dispute.
When those kiosks went in to the local Post Office, they had a greeter who explained their function and features. It was explicity part of the "script" that the transaction was accompanied by a photograph for security purposes.
Seems to me someone needs some PayPal donations to subsidize their fight for your freedom so they announced this as an FOIA issue. Oh, what do you know, donations are the first item on their main page!
How does the camera figure out whether the picture has been "compromised." Is this just as simple as determing the alpha value of the snapped photo to see if you put your hat over the lens? Could there be a locator behind you on the wall that the camera looks for to make sure it isn't compromised? If not, why not hold up a magazine picture or almost anything that has some contrast with different shaped objects and such. Maybe they have a running video that only saves the frames when you run the transaction. That way it could constantly process the images and if something funny starts happening. Like a major image change from a parking lot to the cover of Seventeen being held in front of it (not that the Tween crowd uses stamps, that's saved for old South Koreans), the camera could lock the kiosk for a certain period of time. It might stop a fast moving fat person (they could roll) from buying stamps. No more renewing your subscriptions to Pie of the Month Club.
Once upon a time it was mandatory that notices be put up informing people if they are being recorded. Has that changed? (I haven't seen one of these new machines yet, so I don't know if they carry a notice.)
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
"Postal Stamp dispensers are not what I would consider a potential crime stop worthy of monitoring with a camera."
In Arizona, more than nine out of ten violent crimes happen within 100 feet of an ATM.
Isn't this in violation of the newly enacted privacy protection laws? I would be very surprised if they could actually get away with doing this.