The Postal Service's surveillance program
Skullduggery
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman, Victoria Bassetti
4.0 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2021
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Based on the dogged reporting of investigative journalist and Yahoo News contributor Jana Winter, Americans have recently learned about the covert internet surveillance operation being inexplicably run out of the U.S. Postal Service. The operation, charmingly dubbed “iCop,” targets citizens’ social media posts, and both the exact ends of this invasive effort, and the legal authority under which it exists, are unknown. Winter joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss the fruits of her reporting, the implications of her findings, and to ask why Democrats have not risen to the occasion to protect their constituents.
Plus, author Brad Stone joins to talk about his new book Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire. They discuss some of Amazon’s unlikely successes (like Alexa), and notorious failures (like the Fire phone), as well as the scandalous episode where some of Bezos’s intimate text messages were leaked to the public.
GUESTS:
- Jana Winter (@janawinter), Investigative journalist; contributor, Yahoo News
- Brad Stone (@BradStone), Author; head, Global Technology coverage, Bloomberg
HOSTS:
- Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
- Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
- Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)
RESOURCES:
- “House Votes to Create Capitol Riot Commission” by Nicholas Fandos (May 19, New York Times)
- “Facial recognition, fake identities and digital surveillance tools: Inside the post office’s covert internet operations program” by Jana Winter (May 18, Yahoo News)
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| 0:00.0 | A secret unit of the U.S. Postal Service has used facial recognition software developed |
| 0:06.7 | by a company known as ClearView AI to tap into a database of over 3 billion images from |
| 0:13.6 | across social media to identify potential suspects in law enforcement investigations. |
| 0:19.8 | That's just one of the latest stunning revelations by Yahoo News contributor, Jana Winter, in |
| 0:25.9 | a reporting on the Postal Service's Internet covert operations program. |
| 0:31.0 | A program whose existence was until recently unknown to the public or even Congress, and |
| 0:37.0 | whose activities raised profound civil liberties issues for the Internet age. |
| 0:42.1 | Postal inspectors have also been using software to run keyword searches on social media |
| 0:46.5 | event pages to identify potential threats from upcoming protests, and to create fake email |
| 0:52.8 | and social media accounts to interact with citizens who might be participating in those protests. |
| 0:58.9 | What exactly is this program's purpose, and who, if anybody is monitoring what these |
| 1:03.9 | covert postal inspectors are actually doing, we'll talk to Winter about our reporting. |
| 1:10.2 | And then we'll talk to Brad Stone about his new book about Jeff Bezos, the head of |
| 1:14.5 | a company, Amazon, whose activities also raise privacy and civil liberties concerns |
| 1:19.8 | on this episode of Skull Duggery. |
| 1:23.2 | I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United |
| 1:30.0 | States. |
| 1:31.0 | I will to the best of my building. |
| 1:33.2 | Reserve, protect and defend. |
| 1:35.5 | Constitution of the United States. |
| 1:37.4 | So help me God. |
| 1:38.8 | So help me God. |
... |
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