USPS going digital, wants send snail mail, first, to your email

The United States Postal Service just can’t figure it out. The agency is having difficulty in the wake of the digital age. So apparently it figures, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Yes, the USPS is going digital. Sort of. A new offering by the Postal Service is called “Informed delivery.” People who sign up for the free service will get an email containing pictures of the mail that will soon be coming to your mailbox. Great. Now my mailbox and my inbox will be filled with clutter I don’t want. But the worst part is the potential security risks. Those who want to sign up can do so online by providing their name, address and email address. Security experts caution this system is ripe for abuse because of weak authentication. It would be potentially possible for someone to sign up under your name, then get the daily emails telling them what mail you are expecting. That would make things easier for those so-called porch pirates during the holidays. The Postal Service would do better to use its own delivery method — snail mail — to confirm when our address has been signed up. That would be some mail I would actually look forward to getting.