That new USPS auto-tracking thingiee

I'm not 100% sure what it's called, but when you have a USPS account, you can turn on notifications for anything being shipped to you. I receive and ship quite a lot of things, so I've had it on not thinking too much about it until I saw what I'm pretty sure is a DNM order pop up (it could be something else, but the timing matches nothing I'm expecting and it does match a DNM order). I've probably shipped a few with this on, unless it's during a lull in other stuff or during a time when some other package becomes time critical I probably wouldn't really have noticed.

I'm not worried or anything (there's nothing going on that wouldn't say "business as usual" to prying eyes) but that can't be particularly good right? I mean vendors usually do not hand out tracking, partly so that it's hard to grab and profile, get a lock on location early, etc and here the USPS emails you a tracking # the second anything with your address hits the system. I'm sure they had this capacity for ages if LE asked, but the "no-tracking-unless-dispute" seems kinda blown out of the water here.

I haven't messed with it any (the most unusual thing I could do is turn it off) but I'll probably flip it off next time. I haven't heard this mentioned online at all though, and I think it's at least a fairly recent (as in not years and years old) feature. So.. problem? No problem? Future buyer/seller actions called for?

[EDIT] This thread is probably dead now, but since it's "permanent record" I need to mention that my assumptions were wrong. The package I was tracking arrived. A gag gift (sort of, kind of a "reference to an earlier convo/running joke" kind of thing) from a friend in roughly the same area. As it was meant as a surprise gentle ribbing, he obviously didn't mention it and his timing and location happened to sync up. I still see no track for the package (nor another that should be en route). This casts some doubt on the prior package as well - it matches, but the packaging itself and its data were intentionally destroyed upon receipt so I can't correlate for sure and given the lessened confidence in this feature I don't want to say for sure. So this may all just be me talking out my ass - still keep it in mind and report if does work, but I was wrong in saying I had observed it.


Comments


[6 Points] None:

It's called myusps.com, and I don't see how having it turned on can be a bad thing. It's not as though you're proactively entering the tracking #'s into the system, you're just monitoring what's being sent to you. You still have plausible deniability (or as much as you'd have without it turned on) re: any packages that are inbound to your address. Having this turned on is totally passive, and people wanting to track their mail is not suspicious behavior in and of itself.

IMO, it's a different situation if you're sent a tracking # by a vendor, and then you actively enter that tracking # into the system to track it. This would indicate that you knew you had something headed your way, and in turn would throw your plausible deniability out the window.

That's my 2 cents. Could be totally off here, but I don't think I am.


[3 Points] None:

The reason vendors don't like giving out tracking numbers is because people access it through Tor setting off alarms, I don't think you having that auto tracker thing enabled is bad opsec, but not positive


[1 Points] SacredGeometry25:

Damn this seems like it would be super helpful but when I tried to verify my identity online it didn't work and now I have to wait 3 days :( But what are the options you can choose? Do they text your phone when a package arrives or send you an email or what? Thanks!!!


[1 Points] None:

Yeah I made a myusps account for tracking dnm packages and for some reason they never show up -,- like all my other packages show up on there but not my drugs like what the fuck