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Comment on Are physical mail generally not under surveillance? If everyone suddently ditched electronic communications and start writing letters, would governments be able to practically surveil everyone?

stinerman@midwest.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

My understanding is that there is an expectation of privacy in the USA in the contents of a sealed envelope. I don’t believe that the government can legally open one without a warrant. According to the case Ex Parte Jackson they can’t. However…

You have to trust that they wouldn’t break that law or someone else wouldn’t open it. Depends on your threat model. And as others have said, the government would know who you are communicating with, just not what you’re saying.

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Triumph@fedia.io ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The cost of doing that for physical mail - in dollars, effort, time, and logistics - would be prohibitively high.

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- stinerman@midwest.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  If you’re just a rando, yeah you’re not going to have much to worry about. They also can’t track everyone. But it is certainly possible for high value targets.
  
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