Re: post office strikes another blow against privacy

[elawton@orionsci.com (Lawton, Ed)]

All.

Today's Wall Street Journal, page B1 and B2 has a sizable article on this.
There is a grace period until Oct '99 to notify folks who mail you at the
address.
There are divergent views here.  Folks w/small businesses, such as I, like
to convey a business address vs. a P.O. box to our clients.  It's
reasonable.  The Postal folks claim that because of crime and fraud issues,
it is more appropriate to id addresses w/these initials, however, if a box
holder is not a crook, why lump thousands of honest citizens in this broad
category.  Also, the post offices are competing with these businesses who
rent outthe boxes.  Maybe there's more here than what meets the eye.

Remember, there are always 2 sides to evey story.  If the USPS wants to
change the rules, you must know all the sides.

Regards,

Ed Lawton
Fairfax, VA
PS:  I'm new to this list.


Jordan Rosenberg wrote:

> The post office, in response to a congressional action, has decided it
> will no longer allow you to receive mail at an agency like "mail boxes
> are us" unless your address discloses that it belongs to such an agency.
> You must now include the letters PMB (for private mail box) followed by
> your box number on every piece of incoming mail. Failing that your mail
> will not be delivered. There is a 6 month transition period before the
> new rule becomes practice.
>
> This can be a real hardship for people who have existing addresses and
> who may not be able to notify all the other people who send them mail.
>
> Private mail boxes can be and have been misused by some people to do
> nasty things. As a result the government has decided to punish the law
> abiding while the crooks make some other arrangement.
>
> My initial reaction is to encourage eveyone to  use the letters PMB
> before his apartment number or office number even if he doesn't use a
> mail receiving agency.
>
> Jordan Rosenberg
> jordanr@juno.com
>
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