Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), as well as other senators including Ron Wyden, Rand Paul, Edward Markey, Elizabeth Warren, Mike Lee, Cory Booker, and Steve Daines have sent a bi-partisan letter to the United States Postal Services and they want answers. At stake is your privacy contained in letters, shipments and other parcels that travel through the mail system each and every day.
Last week, Senator Lummis tweeted, “We cannot allow the federal government to be weaponized to violate the privacy of the people of Wyoming.”
The letter calls for “stronger protections for the privacy of Americans’ letters and packages,” according to a press release.
So how is the USPS possibly snooping through your correspondence? Even though a private citizen may not have their mail examined without a warrant under the law, there could be a way that the Senators are worried may be exploited by the postal service. The loophole, although not explicitly defined, could happen when those who send and receive packages are tracked in a process called “mail covers.”