Postal interception

{{Short description|Retrieval of mail intended for someone else, for espionage purposes}}

Postal interception is the act of retrieving another person's mail for the purpose of either ensuring that the mail is not delivered to the recipient, or to spy on them.

For instance, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were involved in numerous large-scale operations targeting US activist groups, whose mail was opened and photographed. In one such programme, over 215,000 letters were opened.{{cite web|url=http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIh.htm|title=SUPPLEMENTARY DETAILED STAFF REPORTS ON INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES AND THE RIGHTS OF AMERICANS: ... DOMESTIC CIA AND FBI MAIL OPENING PROGRAMS|date=April 23, 1976|work=SELECT COMMITTEE TO STUDY GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS WITH RESPECT TO INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES UNITED STATES SENATE |accessdate=2009-03-13}}{{cite book|last=Goldstein|first=Robert|title=Political Repression in Modern America|publisher=University of Illinois Press|title-link=Political Repression in Modern America}} In the United Kingdom, the Special Investigations Unit of the General Post Office was responsible for postal interception.[http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n07/frances-stonorsaunders/stuck-on-the-flypaper Saunders, Frances Stonor. "Stuck on the Flypaper: MI5 and the Hobsbawm File". London Review of Books. 9 April 2015.]

Since 2002, the United States Postal Service photographs the outside of all mail, retains those images for weeks or months, and provides them to police or other investigators upon a simple request.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html|title=U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement|work=New York Times|date=July 3, 2013|first=Ron|last=Nixon}}