Personal Mail Photographed for Law Enforcement

United Press International (UPI) reports, "The U.S. Postal Service photographs all mail processed nationwide in a program similar to U.S. electronic surveillance, officials and security experts say."

"Basically they are doing the same thing as the other programs, collecting the information on the outside of your mail -- the metadata, if you will -- of names, addresses, return addresses and postmark locations, which gives the government a pretty good map of your contacts, even if they aren't reading the contents," computer security expert Bruce Schneier told The New York Times.

According to the article, "The warrantless surveillance program for law enforcement is called Mail Isolation Control and Tracking. It's been in effect almost 11 years."

The Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program was created after the anthrax attacks in late 2001 that killed five people, including two postal workers, and infected 17 others.

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