[sumthinprofound]

Years ago I completed the permanent opt-out for everyone in my household (needing to mail in a paper form is shameful). However, very few unsolicited junk mails since. For any that get through I call that company's support line and request removal. Works ~90% of the time.

One cool free feature the USPS does offer is Informed Delivery [0]: Every morning around 7am I get an email from the postal service with scanned images of all the mail (face of the envelope) I'm receiving that day.

[0] https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.acti...

[wl]

Too bad some product manager had to ruin it by adding ads to those emails. Another revenue opportunity and a way to promote USPS things.

[blorenz]

I don't think promoting revenue this way is necessarily bad. I'd much prefer this then the cost of postage going up which mandates everyone to contribute to the USPS operating expenses rather than those who choose to purchase products through their ads under their own volition.

[RHSeeger]

> mandates everyone to contribute to the USPS operating expenses

Not everyone; just those that use their services. Which seems like exactly the people that should be paying more if the services cost more.

[omginternets]

I cannot for the life of me find the address to which I must send the permanent opt-out form. Did anyone manage to find it?

[garrtt]

Opt-Out Department

P.O. Box 530200

Atlanta, GA

30353

[omginternets]

Cheers!

[Vladimof]

I use informed delivery but for some reason they only send me images of about half the mail I'm getting...

[ajmurmann]

For me it seems to omit pictures of junk mail.

[Vladimof]

I just received a legitimate letter from another country and it was completely missing from informed delivery

[chairmanwow1]

Same for me

[jeffparsons]

AusPost seems to offer something like Informed Delivery for post office boxes, but not for residential addresses. I receive so little addressed (non-parcel) mail, this feature alone almost makes it worth getting a PO box, just so I don't have to remember to check my mail box for the once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence of it containing a posted letter.

[NamTaf]

I was just wondering whether AusPost offered something similar... it's a shame to hear it's not for residential addresses. Almost all of my mail is deliveries of freight from online purchases, so I make habitual use of the locker box and post office collection services. I find them very useful, but unfortunataely for the plain old mail I still have to remember to check the box once every couple of weeks.

[malandrew]

I have mixed feelings about unformed delivery as I don’t think government should have scanned copies of all the mail you get. It’s as personal as when we decided that your video rental history was.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

[crayboff]

They scan all mail already, that's how it gets routed to each home. Informed delivery just has them email you those images they are already taking.

Also in case you were thinking it, they don't open the boxes/letters. It's just the front of it

[geerlingguy]

Well they likely x-ray them too.

[ascagnel_]

They definitely X-ray parcels, for security. Shortly after 9/11, I remember a local post office failing to detect explosives and it getting reported on; this was notable for two reasons:

- one of the hijackers had received a knife through the mail, and it had been processed through that office, so there was extra scrutiny at the time

- a few years prior, that office processed and delivered a package the Unabomber sent that killed someone

[speakfreely]

The majority of mail screening these days is to find illegal drugs. However, given that so many drugs get through, it seems they only x-ray a small subset.

[dimitrios1]

Yes, the USPS started scanning packages and letters since the great Anthrax scares. This is just a productization of an already widespread, in-use technology.

[homero]

They scanned them before then to route them.

[propogandist]

likely transactional data to sustain operations vs retaining the information, which may only happen after opting into the informed delivery service.

[hackernewds]

Not to worry, the government is too inefficient and does not have the technology to convert all that data into anything personalized