Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Mailroom irony

A Postal Service employee has found a unique way to "work" his way up from the mailroom.

Lance McDermott filed a lawsuit against his employer Monday that alleges the federal agency sold his personal information to credit card companies without consent.

McDermott says he was "deluged" with offers from Visa, Sprint Nextel Corp. and other companies.

In a twist to the story, the Postal Service's own handbook apparently states that the agency allows companies to bid for the right to mail promotional offers to its employees. "Growing revenue is a critical strategy for the Postal Service," it notes.

Although the employees could choose not to have their information forwarded, the lawsuit argues that the policy violates the Privacy Act by releasing data without explicit permission.

Aside from the funds this practice brings in, these promotional offers would need to be mailed to reach consumers. I wonder how much revenue is generated by a mailing of 800,000 (the number of workers employed at the USPS)?


Read the full story here.

-JACKIE SAUTER, Daily Record Multimedia Editor

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