US Postal Service wants to provide digital ID and collect more biometric data

In a new report on the role of the US Postal Service (USPS) in identity verification, the Office of the Inspector General for the agency has pushed for it to have an expanded role in the collection of biometric data and the rollout of digital ID.

The report suggests extending the provision of in-person biometric data collection to the 4,800 locations where the USPS already provides a Passport Acceptance Service to the US Department of State. It also notes that the USPS could provide biometric and verification services to other government agencies.

In an example of how the USPS’s expanded verification services could be utilized, the report proposes that the USPS could provide online name and address validation to government agencies by providing these agencies with a “confidence level” that a person lives at a specific address. The USPS notes that this confidence level could be generated by querying national databases such as the USPS’s Address Management System (AMS), the National Change of Address (NCOA) database, and the USPS’s Informed Delivery database.