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!

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!

[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.

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.

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.

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 ?