1. The United States Postal Service (USPS) has been caught sharing customer addresses with tech giants, including Meta (Facebook) and LinkedIn. This practice came to light through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which revealed that the USPS has been providing customer address information to these companies as part of a program called the "Postal Service Informed Visibility" (IV) initiative. The USPS claims this program is designed to help businesses better target their marketing efforts, but privacy advocates have raised concerns about the potential misuse of this data.

2. The FOIA request revealed that the USPS has been sharing customer addresses with a wide range of tech companies, including Meta, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Adobe, among others. This data-sharing arrangement has been in place since at least 2018 and has been used by these companies to enhance their targeted advertising and marketing efforts. The USPS has stated that customers can opt-out of this program, but the process for doing so is not widely known or easily accessible.

3. The revelation of this data-sharing practice has sparked concerns about the privacy rights of USPS customers and the potential for abuse of this information. Privacy advocates have argued that the USPS, as a government agency, should be held to a higher standard when it comes to protecting the personal data of its customers. They have called for greater transparency and oversight of the USPS's data-sharing practices, as well as stronger privacy protections for USPS customers.