The US Postal Service was reportedly caught sharing its customer data and information with advertisers and social platforms, according to a TechCrunch investigation.
In the investigation, TechCrunch found the USPS shares its online customers' data, including their postal address and web traffic, to advertisers and social media like Meta, LinkedIn, and Snapchat.
Tracking numbers, as well as mail location, were also found being shared with Bing, Google, and Pinterest.
While most of the data found being shared were pseudonymized, or partially anonymized, studies have long indicated that these data can still be used to trace back to the original user.
USPS Issues Fix on Customer Data Leakage
In response, the USPS claimed it had already fixed the data leaks and that it was "unaware" of the supposed customer data sharing.
The postal service claimed that it only collects customer information for its "analytics platform," data which the USPS does not sell or provide to any third party.
Meta also defended against the findings, claiming that it is against Facebook's policies for advertisers to send sensitive information through its Business Tools.
The other companies mentioned in the report have yet to issue a statement about the data privacy matter.
USPS's Long History of Unauthorized Data Sharing
This was not the first USPS was involved in a controversy related to disclosing its customers' personal information.
Just last month, law enforcement was reported to be able to access thousands of customer information on USPS easily as most requests were approved immediately, even without necessary court orders.
This is not to mention the multiple online server vulnerabilities that have riddled USPS's operations for years as 60 million user data were exposed online.
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