Dumb question: why is this such a big deal? Is there something about a camera at a post office that is worse than e.g. the cameras my local police department has mounted on certain street corners?
I'd be 50/50 on this point if the camera didn't just up and disappear after an official journalistic entity inquired about their existence...
Then when you consider the (bullshit) form style response from a branch of our own government and the fact that managers at the post office we not alerted to the camera's existence...
As alluded to in the report when they brought up the recent congressional hearings where it was found out that address information on packages had been/is being recorded and stored.... I think the problem has much more to do with the quickly growing trend of extremely subversive surveillance than it has to do with this particular incident or surveillance in general. If its merits were being openly debated by the entities putting it in place then this would be an entirely different story. But when journalistic inquires are met with secrecy and form letters? Go and ask your local police about the cameras on certain corners and I'd bet you're more likely to get a more personable/human answer than was obtained here in this story. Just my take.
Also... I think most people can plainly see the merit in having cameras mounted on street corners if they have ever been involved in a he said/she said style accident at one of those street corners. Not saying it makes it right or wrong but I think it's easier for people to see the merit in something like that where it might actually protect them personally from someone doing something reckless. How often are people genuinely afraid of dangerous packages outside of ticking boxes in movies or ricin scares in the media? I think it's far more likely that the cameras you speak of at intersections would take a dangerous man off the streets (drunk drivers, criminals on the run) before a post office camera. Again, doesn't make it right or wrong in my mind, but it does make it a bigger deal.
Because of the way data can be cross-referenced in this case. You can create connections between a license plate, a photograph, a specific time and location, and possibly the package you send (image some system inside the postbox itself to tag the package as it is pushed in), including the destination and return addresses. This goes way beyond simply collecting surveillance videos, and if rolled out nationally, would make a major contribution to the total surveillance environment that the security agencies wish to create.
Watching mailing activity has a chilling effect on your 1st Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association. As does the general trend to watch everything.
Presumably it's to tie an individual to a piece of mail they sent. I assume people worry because its a way to bypass getting a warrant to directly open up mail.
Because mail is one of the more anonymous physical ways to interact with someone. Try buying Bitcoin anonymously. Most suggestions have you walking into a bank (highly monitored), or meeting a stranger (easy to be monitored, perhaps even collect a DNA sample, plus could follow you around).
Whereas if you can buy stamps anonymously then discreetly drop a package of in an unmonitored mailbox, you're doing fairly well on the anonymity. (Assuming you're using untraceable cash, didn't leave fingerprints, hair, writing style, printer fingerprint, etc.) The best they get is a day + one point of physical presence.
Edit: Making it so severe is that the apparently preferred way to get stamps is the machines that print out uniquely marked stamps. Last time I tried all this, I had to go out of my way to find non-serialed stamps that I could pay for with cash.
Is there something about a camera at a post office that is worse than e.g. the cameras my local police department has mounted on certain street corners?
The Post Office is a federal agency. And this is Fox News.
That's true, but the local Fox affiliate in my area seems to be way more alarmist than the other stations. They talk about a couple inches of snow as the biggest winter storm this season. While true, it's a bit exaggerated in an area that gets that amount multiple times in a typical year.
