USPS says the cameras, put on USPS truck dashboards, will scan roads, signs, and more.

The United States Postal Service is running a pilot program to put cameras in its mail carrier trucks that continuously scan roads and signs, map roadways and sidewalks, and improve “community safety,” according to a letter posted by a labor union and a statement from the agency to 404 Media. The idea is that, since the trucks are constantly traveling anyway, they can be used as a way to collect data, eventually potentially across the nation.

The letter, written by the United States Postal Service (USPS) Labor Relations to Brian Renfroe, the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, says the USPS will partner with Next Base, a dashcam company, for the pilot. At the moment, the cameras will be used in the Washington, DC area, and will be installed on a hundred vehicles, the letter says.

On its website, Next Base offers a variety of dash cams, marketed to ordinary drivers, fleet operators, and ride share drivers. Its website says Next Base’s cameras record in up to 4K, and can capture every “license plate” with precision. The cameras don’t run automatic license plate reader (ALPR) software, though.

The pilot was slated to start on September 21, and is expected to last several months, the letter says.

USPS trucks already have 360 degree cameras that capture the outside of the vehicle for a period of time.

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[–] 52 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Guarantee that data is going to be sold

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    Don't worry the cameras will have some insane price per month that the company charges. So not only are they getting the data they're getting tax payer dollars as well. Same as with Flock, Axon, etc. Government grows in power against it's citizens, and the company gets free data. It's a win win for those signing the deal.

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  • [–] 46 points 1 month ago* (5 children)

    Are you fucking kidding me? USPS was one of the last US gov entities I partially respected.

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  • [–] 38 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    Current US postmaster general: David P. Steiner. He was the candidate favored by Trump and said that if a state refuses to give the Trump administration their voter lists, the Postal Service will not mail their ballots. Republicans ruin everything...

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  • [+] -15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

    Oh, don't worry. All US presidents from the Democrats are war criminals. They ruin everything too

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    It's interesting to see how your comment was received. If you omitted "from the Democrats," I'd bet that it would get upvotes because Lemmy largely seems to dislike the US.

    🤔 Does Lemmy actually like US Democrats, even though they are American?

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  • [–] 21 points 1 month ago (7 children)

    Can we pease stop building panopticon

    The only "upside" to all this is that the worse it gets the more awareness people have

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    My local school board installed cameras in the buildings. Ostensibly to track where the shooter is in case there ever is one.

    I spoke against this at the meeting by talking about Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon.

    I spoke fully 5 minutes before realizing

    None of the fucking school board knew who Bentham was or his idea for total surveillance prisons.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    People are dumb sheep. Awareness is going to do jack fucking shit when they're coked up on social media.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago*

    Normally, I'd agree with you. I was the only person I knew in my whole community that was anti-war in 2001.

    But Flock losing 100+ contracts, just in September, and 400+ in 36 states since June suggests that awareness of the problem is translating to mass action via the boring, pedestrian democratic process. (Also a great reminder that while we have no power nationally, we still have power locally.)

    Agreed that people are generally sheep. It's why people still vote D and R, but at least right now, they're doing something. The overall problem is that it takes way less time for this sort of thing to proliferate than it does for people and the law to catch up.

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  • [–] 20 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    It could be useful to find and report potholes and other maintenance issues, but I doubt anyone is stupid enough to believe that's why they're doing this.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

    When you see your postal truck taxpayer funded Google camera trucks with them be sure to take your curbside mailbox down and put a mail slot on your house. Make the fuckers get out and walk to every damn house so they can be vigilant for oily driveways or any sitting water too.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Sadly that is not the way it works. Where I'm from the only places that have walking carrier service have always had it and nimbys have prevented change. New developments don't even get mailbox in front of house but community mail centers/boxes.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    Oh well then. Still I've always wanted to take a trashcan and stick the front half of a mailbox in it so that the mail just falls down into it. I don't order packages no more so they have nothing I want.

    I've always resisted it because it would be disrespectful to postal workers.

    But honestly, if you're going spy on me, help rig our elections, then fuck it, you should be reminded what your job mostly is: spam.

    So that's my filter. It goes strait to trash.

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  • I have a camera in my car but it's just so I can get the license plate numbers off of coal rolling trucks so that I can find out where they live and put sealing foam into their tail pipes. Be the change you want to see in the world.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago

    Land of the Free y'all

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago

    The part worth watching is the data side of the dashcam-company partnership: who owns the footage, how long it's kept, and whether it can be shared with police or sold on. USPS is subject to FOIA, so a records request for the pilot agreement and any retention or data-sharing terms is one of the few concrete things people can do here. If the deal really is only about mapping roads and signs, the contract should say so, and if it doesn't, that's the story.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    I’m going to park my old, fat ass on my front lawn stark nekkid until they pull those fucking camera out.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    Jokes on them! My mail carrier never comes down my street.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    they'd get an eyeful out here in the woodlands. these old mining roads are barely passable as it is

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  • 15 comments in c/news@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 75 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    We don’t have money for new USPS trucks, or air conditioning for the drivers — but spy cameras get funding.

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  • [–] 26 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    If all this digital surveillance actually worked, governments would be advertising the shit out of the statistics and camera footage of crimes being stopped. Instead we just get stories of cops stalking some poor creeped out girls.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 month ago

    Thank god for the surveillance panopticon, I feel so safe and secure and totally not at risk for something as petty as expressing wrongthink

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  • [–] 23 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Sigh. The USPS has one job. To deliver mail. They are not a security agency, an elections monitoring agency, or whatever the hell else Trump wants to use them for.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago

    This makes me think of how Flock (unsuccessfully) pitched to Uber/Lyft to get driver's dash cams into their surveillance network.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago

    Trump seems like the sort of upstanding person who could be reasonably trusted with a system to do automated monitoring of all of society's streetfronts.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Where are the cameras located and how easy are they to cover or damage?

    Asking for a friend.

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    They will be inside on the dashboard most likely...

    Don't forget that interfering with mail delivery in any way is like, a yuge felony. I'm sure theyve taken that into consideration with this decision.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    So glad a huge portion of MY MONEY earned through MY LABOR is being used by the evilest pricks to do the dumbest, vilest crap. /s

    I loved my mail carriers growing up and still do. I wave at my mail guy every chance I see him. If this big brother crap becomes real, I'm gonna avoid the mail carrier at all costs. I don't want to walk my dog past that truck or anything. These are hard working heroes that are being used by fascists.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    shame... ✂️🛞

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  • 6 comments in c/privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com view that post
    [–] 14 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    The cameras don’t run automatic license plate reader (ALPR) software, though.

    This seems totally meaningless if they are collecting the data, they can run whatever software they want on it whenever they get around to it.

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  • What wonderful use of taxpayer money...

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago* (1 child)

    the same thing they tried to do with garbage trucks. they want info on potential POCs, low income people, and political activist against the gop.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago*

    People who have consistently downvoted my comments critical of the USPS doxing you at every turn, and allowing businesses to cheaply spam you:

    your move

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