CDT Statement on Intelligent Mail and the Presidential Commission Report

August 19, 2003

On July 31, 2003, a Presidential Commission on the Postal Service released a report calling, among other recommendations, on the US Postal Service (USPS) to aggressively explore the use of sender identification for every piece of mail, commercial and retail, setting off a round of concern about the impact on privacy and anonymity if all mail were technologically traceable to a specific sender. CDT believes that intelligent mail can offer substantial benefits to mailers, especially in the commercial context. Intelligent mail, implemented correctly, can promote security and make the mail process more efficient. But in stating that the greatest inconvenience, most certainly, would be to those who use the mail system for unlawful purposes, the Commission ignored the Constitutional right of anonymous political speech and the important anti-fraud and anti-crime contributions of anonymous whistleblowers and tipsters.

The CommissionÕs treatment of the concept of Intelligent Mail failed to adequately address concerns with mandatory use of the system. For some time, the USPS and leading companies have been pursuing a project on Intelligent Mail, designed to provide more information to commercial senders and recipients of US postal mail and others who want the benefits of traceability and authentication in their mail. Intelligent Mail is likely to be an essential component to updating the US postal mail system. Intelligent mail could offer substantial benefits to mailers, especially in the commercial context. At the same time, its use in the context of personal mail or political speech poses genuine privacy and free speech concerns. We understand that both the USPS and commercial developers of Intelligent Mail systems are sensitive to those issues and are interested in addressing them. The Presidential Commission recognized none of this.

CDT hopes that the Presidential Commission Report will have a positive impact on Intelligent Mail by inviting more attention to the project. CDT believes that intelligent mail can be implemented while ensuring an anonymous and privacy friendly mail system. We hope to continue working with USPS and those building tomorrowÕs mail systems to achieve, in a balanced way, all of these important goals.

Background

Intelligent Mail is a broad term generally used to refer to the new technology systems being developed to track postal mail. In the most comprehensive versions, an advanced digital barcode is applied where the mail originates. Postal agents scan the mail at various stages of its trip and can make the resulting information available to the sender and recipient of the mail. The concept was originally aimed at commercial customers who could use the data to make better decisions about customer relations and shipping processes with more information about how their mail is being delivered. Intelligent mail would allow USPS, using aggregated data, to become more efficient.

After the postal anthrax attacks of 2001, both the House and Senate appropriations committees suggested that greater use of trusted mail would aid postal employees in securing mail. On December 10, 2001 the General Accounting Office (GAO) held a day-long conference to review the issues involved.

Since the conference, CDT has maintained an ongoing informal dialog with USPS and postage equipment manufacturers. CDT has been optimistic about these meetings. The participants seemed to be in agreement that the application of identification technologies to commercial mail raises far fewer concerns about the collection, use and control of personal information than their application to personal mail. Because the vast majority of mail is commercial in nature, pursuing Intelligent Mail in the commercial context could also serve to significantly increase postal security, in part by limiting the amount of mail that required special scrutiny. Individual rights could still be protected if there were a means for individuals to choose whether or not to use Intelligent Mail at their discretion for their personal mail.

CDT believes that the use of Intelligent Mail should move forward in the commercial context while preserving opportunities for anonymity and protecting privacy. It could well make the postal system more efficient and enhance the security of the mail system overall. Use in personal mail should be left up to individuals and, even with individual control, privacy concerns need to be addressed in the design and use policies for the system.

Moving Forward

Consistent with the concept of privacy by design, CDT believes that Intelligent Mail can be designed in such a way as to afford individuals a range of options for their personal mail and means for exercising anonymity. Rather than dismissing civil liberties concerns, as the Commission did, they should be taken into account in the design of an expanded intelligent mail project. A system that did not allow for anonymity could even harm the security interests cited by the Commission, by, for example, restraining the ability of informants to remain anonymous. CDT is committed to working with the USPS and the private sector to develop privacy principles for Intelligence Mail systems.

For further information: Ari Schwartz, ari@cdt.org, (202) 637-9800 x 107

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