The amazing thing about today's technology is practically anything can be made digital already. Nowadays, its the United States Postal Service's turn. They can now email you your snail mail. No, this does not mean the good guys at USPS will be rummaging through your mail.
All they will do is scan the actual envelopes and mail these images to the recipients, if they so wish. Before anyone says anything, however, it must be noted that this practice has been in place for a couple of years now, as BGR noted.
Scanning mail apparently helps the USPS sort out the mail it has to send out to every corner of the country. Also, documentation of this kind can be used by law enforcement in criminal investigations.
Mail tracking was first implemented after anthrax attacks claimed the lives of two postal workers and three other people in 2001. Ricin-laced letters have also been intercepted which were addressed to president Barack Obama and then mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg, Quartz reported.
It must be noted that the USPS will only take pictures of the exterior of the envelope, the front side, in particular. The letter is otherwise left intact. Customers must first sign up to make use of the service through this link. Automatic emails from USPS cannot be expected.
Also, at the moment the service, called Informed Delivery, is available in seven Northern Virginia zip codes. This has been in place since 2014. Informed Delivery will be rolled out to the New York City metro next. Other markets will receive the same service starting next year.
Informed Delivery is not available to businesses and will also not apply to packages. The agency did say, however, that scans of catalogs and magazines may be included in the service in the future. Informed Delivery is a free service.
