Fed Up With FedEx
Remember the TIPS program? It was the Bush Administration’s proposed network of letter carriers and utility workers who’d function as the eyes and ears of the Federal government to turn in “suspicious” types who just might be hatching “terrorist” plots. The de facto spy program was supposed to be in operation 3 years ago but Americans were awake enough then to be outraged that truck drivers and cable guys would be functioning as public informants and the program never materialized. Officially. Unofficially, Fed Ex has happily picked up where TIPS never took off.
Did you know that when you pay FedEx (or any of the spy- happy FedEx family of companies including Kinko’s) for shipping or printing or copying, you get the value-added bonus of having your activities monitored and reported to the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security or U.S. Customs?
Did you also know that FedEx has its own police department and a database that’s regularly shared with the Federal government?
Keep all this in mind the next time you choose which shipping service to use. United Parcel Service Inc. has refused to sell out its customers the way FedEx does.
The snitch culture that exists at FedEx is also shared by AOL , Western Union and WalMart, these companies have joined the ranks of companies which think their customer’s privacy is theirs to trade.
The next time you’re about to send something FedEX remember that the U.S. government has enlisted the enthusiastic support of this corporation as one giant-sized human intelligence network.
Come to think of it, their name says it all.
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