Informed Delivery

Informed Delivery is a service offered by the United States Postal Service (USPS) whereby customers can view online images of physical mail that is expected to be delivered that day.

The Informed Delivery service

Subscribers to this service are able to view the front of incoming mail items expected to be delivered that day by 9am every morning. It shows the exterior of such items, but so far works only for letter sized items, not larger envelopes or packages. The images can be sent by email or text or viewed on a mobile app. It is also possible to add delivery instructions for the letter carrier, and request redelivery. The service also allows one to report an item that should have been delivered but wasn't.^[1]

Availability

Informed Delivery was first made available as a pilot project in a few zip codes in 2014, and in 2017 was expanded to the majority of the USA.^[2] As of October 2017, there were 6.3 million users.^[3]

Criticism

Informed Delivery has been criticized for weak security. There has been concern that the service could be misused by stalkers, abusive ex partners, private investigators, and identity thieves. According to Krebs on Security, Informed Delivery uses a form of authentication known as knowledge based authentication (KBA) to verify that people signing up truly live at that address. KBA authenticates users by asking them a series of multiple choice questions that, presumably, only the user would know the answer to. However Krebs has criticized KBA because in his view many of the questions can be answered easily by an attacker accessing social media. Informed Delivery executive program director Bob Dixon had indicated that security would be improved by Jan 2018 by sending a letter confirmation when someone signs up.Many transportation logistics firms offer similar accelerated services.^[3]

References

^ Downs, Claire (5 Apr 2018). "The post office will actually email you photos of your incoming mail". Daily Dot. Retrieved 18 Apr 2018.
^ Strutner, Suzy (1 Jun 2017). "This Nifty New Service Shows You Your Mail Before It's Even Delivered". Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 Apr 2018.
^ ^a ^b Krebs, Brian (2 Oct 2017). "USPS 'Informed Delivery' Is Stalker's Dream". Brian Krebs. Retrieved 18 Apr 2018.

External links

Informed Delivery by USPS

[downs-1] Downs, Claire (5 Apr 2018). "The post office will actually email you photos of your incoming mail". Daily Dot. Retrieved 18 Apr 2018.

[strutner-2] Strutner, Suzy (1 Jun 2017). "This Nifty New Service Shows You Your Mail Before It's Even Delivered". Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 Apr 2018.

[krebs-3] Krebs, Brian (2 Oct 2017). "USPS 'Informed Delivery' Is Stalker's Dream". Brian Krebs. Retrieved 18 Apr 2018.

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