Reading Your Postal Mail Online

An anonymous reader writes "Remote Control Mail gives us one more reason not to leave our computers. Their service lets you access your postal mail on the Web. They offer scanning of mail contents, shredding, recycling and shipping. There's a good writeup on Techcrunch, complete with a CAD animation showing some robotics technology (Flash Movie) that RCM is developing to automate mail handling. The service costs $25 to get started and $20 a month for individuals." Now if we could only reply the same way.

Comments

wait till NetFlix hears about this!

[yagu]

This is very cool! But I'm not sure what NetFlix and Blockbuster (among others) are going to think about this! Finally, an easy way to get DVD's onto my computer!

Re:wait till NetFlix hears about this!

[Bastard of Subhumani]

if this isn't a government sanctioned facility, is mail tampering still a federal crime

Tampering is. Handling, i.e. processing someone's mail on their behalf and with their permission isn't. I remember way back when there were these people employed in normal offices called secretaries who used to do that for managers. And - get this - they were mostly chicks!

would the risk/reward of ID theft be worth the lower penalty of base theft.

Base theft? They are all belong to us anyway!

Seriously, I think your foil hat's a bit too tight.

Doubleplusgood!

[pair-a-noyd]

And we all know that our mail contents will be kept 100% private.

Snail mail is the ONLY private form of communications we have left.

Re:Doubleplusgood!

[Broken scope]

You think they don't open letters sometimes?

Re:Doubleplusgood!

[NiteShaed]

Snail mail is the ONLY private form of communications we have left.

Until of course someone steals your mail, reads through it all, and steals your identity. But hey, at least it keeps the crystal meth users busy. If someone wants to steal your mail, they'll find a way.

Also, Doubleplusgood? How do you equate the police of the Ministry of Love reading messages specifically looking for "crimes" against Big Brother, with automated document scanning by a private company that you hire? There are plenty of times when 1984 references are on target, but this doesn't seem to be one of them.....

Re:Doubleplusgood!

[Josh Lindenmuth]

Snail mail would be private if it got to the desired recipient 100% of the time. About 1/2 of my mail ends up in a neighbor's mailbox (and vice versa). I can't tell you how many times I've had an important bill (such as property tax) delivered by a neighbor who accidentally received it. Every time we call the post office, they ask us to file a report (which we do), but nothing changes. Luckily we live in a pretty trustworthy neighborhood, or I'd be in trouble.

Does anybody have tinfoil hat instructions

[HolyCrapSCOsux]

Normally I'm not a super-huge privacy advocate, but something about this makes me a bit uncomfortable.

Re:Does anybody have tinfoil hat instructions

[HairyCanary]

Errr... all of your postal mail is already routinely handled not only mechanically, but by real live people.

Re:Does anybody have tinfoil hat instructions

[Duggeek]

Sorry, but that's irrelevant. Those employees are bound directly by Federal Law to deliver the mail to you, un-opened.

We trust the folks at USPS, and the UPS store (et al) to handle mail, not open and scan it. To me, that's a HUGE difference when you're talking privacy and secure correspondence.

If there's a better example for your comparison, it would be payment-processing facilities. (a.k.a. lockboxes)

Their operations are strictly controlled, managed and audited, yet heavily automated with mail-opening and scanning devcies. Employees and contractors are often bonded for the sheer volume of currency they are apt to handle. OTOH, there's so much labor-intensive work that it's hard for such operations to turn a profit. Many organizations, especially cable-service providers and land-line telephone services, consider it a necessary evil, even though the entire department often shows quarterly losses.

Despite all that, it only affects how your intended payment reaches the proper account; the model being proposed in TFA is a method to disseminate all of your incoming, private mail. Currently, we don't really have a model to compare; unless you're a butler.

If a lockbox struggles to show a profit, just how would this business model work anyway?

Shredding Is Now Easier

[hondo77]

I bought a new shredder a few months back (thanks for the bargain, eBay). It's powerful enough to shred the whole envelope and its contents without opening, even with those fake credit cards inside. Junk mail management is now so much easier.

There's some sort of loop involved...

[krell]

There's some sort of pointless loop involved if all I use this service for is to read my paper-mailed ISP and "Remote Control Mail" bills online. A veritable Mobius-strip of "what the hell FOR???!?!?".

Re:Excellent

[planetmn]

With few exceptions (Taxes are the only thing that comes to mind), I can get all of my statements paper free. This includes Credit Card, Cable, Phone, Gas, Electricity. In fact, they would prefer (and push) the electronic methods of receiving your bill. Some people (me included) just prefer paper bills. An easy to store and reference method of your account history.

-dave

Extra services

[edwardpickman]

For an extra $3 a month we can tell your creditors to bite you.

For another $5 we can break up with your scary ex for you.

And for an extra $10 a month we can forward your up coming invitation to visit Iraq from your Uncle Sam to an address in Canada.

I'm in favor

[Hennell]

I think this is a brilliant idea. I'll be perfectly safe from all those angry letter bombs I'm sent...

Do they have a form of penalty system if your mail blows-up the shredder?

check out paytrust...

[pw700z]

http://www.paytrust.com/ - They receive your bills, open them, post them online, and allow you to pay them. It's awesome... i've moved 4 times since i started using the service, and only had to notify the gas/electric company!

Non-letter contents

[identity0]

But if someone mails me anthrax, will they convert it to a Outlook macro for me?

If my gf sends me panties, will someone sniff it for me?

When the brother of the ex-president of Nigeria sends me his check, will they PayPal it to me?

See, unless it does all the things I use my snail mail for, it's useless to me.

And why did I want this ?

[richg74]

Let's see. When I get postal mail now, I:

1. Get it from the mail box
2. Open it
3. Read it

With this service, I would:

1. Get it from the server
2. Open it
3. Read it
4. Pay $20 per month

BRILLIANT ! Where do I sign?

More seriously, I can see that this might appeal to people who travel a lot, but for everyone else ?

Oh my goodness, the fine print

[jyoull]

um, it might LOOK like $20 a month, but keep reading. The price schedule has ten dense footnotes!

http://www.remotecontrolmail.com/pricing.php

Gotta learn all about mail induction, flats, storage days, document prep fees charged by the minute but billed by the second, the assumption that eveyr piece of mail weighs a minimum of one ounce for shredding-weight-per-day calculations.

omfg

Thanks but I'll wait til I can figure out if this will cost $20 or $200 per month since I have no control over my inbound mail.