Days after its sweeping covert internet surveillance operation was exposed through media reports, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) changed the program’s name and told analysts to stop monitoring the keyword “protest,” according to a recently released inspector general’s report.
The March 25 IG report comes nearly a year after the USPIS “Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP)” was revealed by Yahoo News. The iCOP program alarmed both sides of the political aisle due to its surveillance of right- and left-wing protest movements, prompting the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to request the IG audit.
