Your private data and social media posts are secretly being collected by the United States Postal Service.
Yahoo News obtained a document showing that the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been covertly using a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned events and protests.
According to a March 16 government bulletin obtained by the outlet, the USPS’ law enforcement arm is tracking citizens’ social media activity to gather data on a host of topics, including “inflammatory” postings and planned protests, that it shares across multiple federal agencies as part of an effort called the Internet Covert Operations Program, or iCOP.
Yahoo News said the document, which was marked “law enforcement sensitive,” specifically mentioned an examination of alleged planned activity for March 20 and was distributed through Homeland Security’s fusion centers.
“Analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021,” the bulletin said. “Locations and times have been identified for these protests, which are being distributed online across multiple social media platforms, to include right-wing leaning Parler and Telegram accounts.”
The alleged threats were found not to be legitimate as iCOP’s intelligence admitted in a report:
A number of groups were expected to gather in cities around the globe on March 20 as part of a World Wide Rally for Freedom and Democracy, to protest everything from lockdown measures to 5G. “Parler users have commented about their intent to use the rallies to engage in violence. Image 3 on the right is a screenshot from Parler indicating two users discussing the event as an opportunity to engage in a ‘fight’ and to ‘do serious damage,'” says the bulletin.
“No intelligence is available to suggest the legitimacy of these threats,” it adds.
The bulletin includes screenshots of posts about the protests from Facebook, Parler, Telegram and other social media sites. Individuals mentioned by name include one alleged Proud Boy and several others whose identifying details were included but whose posts did not appear to contain anything threatening.
“iCOP analysts are currently monitoring these social media channels for any potential threats stemming from the scheduled protests and will disseminate intelligence updates as needed,” the bulletin says.
For the full story click here.
