IP: The Postal Service Has Its Eye on You

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 00:23:38 -0400
>To: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
>Subject: The Postal Service Has Its Eye on You
>
>THE POSTAL SERVICE HAS ITS EYE ON YOU
>
>By John Berlau
>
>July 14, 2001
>
>Since 1997, the U.S. Postal Service has been conducting a
>customer-surveillance program, 'Under the Eagle's Eye,' and reporting
>innocent activity to federal law enforcement. Could you already be a
>victim?
>
>http://www.moreprivacy.com/editorials/postaleye.htm
<snip>

One thing that should set off alarms, the postal service says, is a 
customer objecting to filling out an 8105-A form that requests their date 
of birth, occupation and driver?s license or other government-issued ID for 
a purchase of money orders of $3,000 or more. If they cancel the purchase 
or request a smaller amount, the clerk automatically should fill out Form 
8105-B, the ?suspicious-activity? report. ?Whatever the reason, any 
customer who switches from a transaction that requires an 8105-A form to 
one that doesn?t should earn himself or herself the honor of being 
described on a B form,? the training manual says.

But the ?suspicious? customers might just be concerned about privacy, says 
Solveig Singleton, a senior analyst at the Competitive Enterprise 
Institute. And a professional criminal likely would know that $3,000 was 
the reporting requirement before he walked into the post office. ?I think 
there?s a lot of reasons that people might not want to fill out such forms; 
they may simply think it?s none of the post office?s business,? Singleton 
tells Insight. ?The presumption seems to be that from the standpoint of the 
post office and the Bank Secrecy regulators every citizen is a suspect.?
Both Singleton and Nojeim say ?Under the Eagle?s Eye? unfairly targets the 
poor, minorities and immigrants ? people outside of the traditional banking 
system. ?A large proportion of the reports will be immigrants sending money 
back home,? Nojeim says. Singleton adds, ?It lends itself to discrimination 
against people who are sort of marginally part of the ordinary banking 
system or who may not trust things like checks and credit cards.?
<snip>



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