[DanBC]

It'd be more interesting if they captured the address the package is sent to; the return address (if any); and the post mark.

As I understand it postal mail is traditionally given much stronger protections than other forms of communication, especially in the US.

I'd be very surprised if postal mail was being intercepted and contents were read without very strong warrants.

EDIT: It does sound like a fascinating system though. All that mechanical stuff; all those different sizes; all that paper dust! Postal mail is amazing.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

It really is. I used to do embedded software for controlling mailing machines and the technology for paper handling is amazing. You mentioned paper dust: the printer we used was based on a Canon print engine with wipers added to periodically clean off accumulated dust and ink goo. IIRC, we ran a wipe cycle every two minutes to keep it clean enough to not clog the jets. It was a real problem because the ink had to be a fast-drying composition to avoid smearing as the mailpieces stacked up.

I moved on before I got to work on the sorting machines: the intricacy of that stuff is truly mindblowing for a mechanisms geek like me ;-)