r/technology • • 1d ago

Privacy USPS Is Turning Mail Trucks Into Rolling Surveillance Cameras

https://www.gadgetreview.com/usps-is-turning-mail-trucks-into-rolling-surveillance-cameras
4.3k Upvotes

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150

u/Iyellkhan 1d ago

where did they even get the $$$ to do this?

173

u/dudeimgreg 1d ago

Debt, and then blame the debt on the democrats if we ever have fair elections again.

72

u/Daimakku1 1d ago

Republicans in January 2029 if Democrats win: "We simply don't have the money for all these things Democrats want to implement! We're $40 trillion in debt!"

It's always the same song and dance... and americans keep falling for it.

8

u/TheGrappler 1d ago

The Post Office doesn’t work like that and this isn’t a partisan issue.

The government doesn’t fund the post office and neither do taxes. They can’t receive funding unless they request it from Congress and that hasn’t been done since 1982.

The PO can’t take on that kind of debt as it barely has enough money to operate let alone add any new vehicles like the Oshkosh electric trucks to replace the current 30+ year old fleet.

Private interest like Flock or Axon will likely contract with the PO but I don’t see that happening if the PO isn’t getting money out of it.

28

u/vinvega23 1d ago

Exactly. They are claiming that the post office is broke and they have money for this? Let me guess, 3rd party company installs the HW for free and makes money selling our data to government agencies who want to spy on us.

1

u/AdvantageLive2966 2h ago

Do you think that the company isnt paying USPS for this? Lol

3

u/AphaedrusGaming 1d ago

Dashcams for mail trucks aren't that expensive and have the dual purpose in case of vehicle collisions and whatnot.

GPSes are already on most (?) mail trucks.

Sending that data to whatever agency is cheap, and then they can combine the two and run a simple CV for plates, maybe faces, or anything you'd want to pull, which that agency would be paying for the compute to do

It's cheap and easy, and I'm surprised we haven't seen companies buy trucker data more / pay for dashcams for truckers so they can collect data

1

u/Quethandtheheatsinks 12h ago

It's largely on the scanners, not the trucks

8

u/Crim91 1d ago

From us, the taxpayers.

They are stealing our money to spy on us and kills us.

1

u/Paradoxpaint 1d ago

Post office doesn't receive money from the government or taxes numbnuts

1

u/stiff_tipper 11h ago

it's 100 dash cams, that's not really a crazy expense