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The Postal Service stonewalled for three years
What caught his eye
Reporter Byron Tau got curious when the Postal Service pushed hard to collect electronic information. Signing up for informed delivery or filling out a change of address form hands over an email address and often a phone number, and the agency presses for a receipt by email or text. The agency that knows where everyone lives was also gathering digital identifiers, and linking a person's physical life to their digital one is a very difficult problem in marketing.
Stonewalling and a lawsuit
He asked for the privacy documents that a 1970s law known as the Privacy Act requires to be public anyway. The Postal Service stonewalled him for three years.
He hired lawyers, and the Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic now represents him. They brought suit in federal court in Washington, DC to force the Postal Service to turn over the most basic information about how it handles personal data. The documents have not yet come back, and the reason for the delay is unknown: the agency may have written them poorly, may not have them, or may be holding back something it does not want people to know.
Why must agencies publish privacy notices?
Congress passed the Privacy Act in 1974, in the aftermath of Watergate and growing worry about government computer files. It requires an agency that keeps records searchable by a person's name to publish a public notice describing the system. The notice, called a system of records notice, appears in the Federal Register. It lists what the records contain, why they are kept, and who may receive them.
How long can an agency delay records requests?
Under the Freedom of Information Act, an agency has 20 business days to respond to a request, with extensions allowed in unusual circumstances. If it does not respond, the requester can sue in federal court. Judges can order the agency to produce the documents. The statute also allows courts to award attorney fees to a requester who substantially prevails.
How does the Postal Service already track mail?
After the 2001 anthrax attacks, the Postal Service created the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program. It photographs the exterior of mail processed at its sorting facilities and stores the images. Separately, the Postal Inspection Service runs a mail cover program that records the outside of a person's mail at the request of law enforcement.
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