The US Postal Service is looking to integrate with the “Internet of Things” by attaching electronic sensors to your mail.
The proposal appears in a solicitation posted on FedBizOpps which announces a program to, “Provide a vision for the Internet of Things applied to the Postal Service (the Internet of Postal Things — IoPT): a conceptual design of how new sensor and other data collection technologies could increase the ability of Postal Service infrastructure to create value to its business, customers and stakeholders through data.”
The USPS is also looking to, “Identify the components of the postal physical infrastructure that could lend themselves to the collection of new types of data.” The solicitation offers $100,000 to an individual or company that can help to achieve this goal.
Given that the “Internet of Things” was hailed by former CIA director David Petraeus as a transformational boon for “clandestine tradecraft,” the idea of America’s postal service jumping on board isn’t going to sit comfortably with privacy advocates.
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