section_path: Modern mail/Privacy and censorship
section_name: Privacy and censorship
paragraph_text: Privacy and censorship
  
  Documents should generally not be read by anyone other than the addressee; for example, in the United States of America it is a violation of federal law for anyone other than the addressee and the government to open mail. There are exceptions however: executives often assign secretaries or assistants the task of handling their mail; and postcards do not require opening and can be read by anyone. For mail contained within an envelope, there are legal provisions in some jurisdictions allowing the recording of identities of sender and recipient.
  
  The privacy of correspondence is guaranteed by the constitutions of Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela, and is alluded to in the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The control of the contents inside private citizens' mail is censorship and concerns social, political, and legal aspects of civil rights. International mail and packages are subject to customs control, with the mail and packages often surveyed and their contents sometimes edited out (or even in).
  
  There have been cases over the millennia of governments opening and copying or photographing the contents of private mail. Subject to the laws in the relevant jurisdiction, correspondence may be openly or covertly opened, or the contents determined via some other method, by the police or other authorities in some cases relating to a suspected criminal conspiracy, although black chambers (largely in the past, though there is apparently some continuance of their use today) opened extralegally.
  
  The mail service may be allowed to open the mail if neither addressee nor sender can be located, in order to attempt to locate either. Mail service may also open the mail to inspect if it contains materials that are hazardous to transport or violate local laws.
  
  While in most cases mail censorship is exceptional, military mail to and from soldiers is often subject to surveillance. The mail is censored to prevent leaking tactical secrets, such as troop movements or weather conditions. Depending on the country, civilian mail containing military secrets can also be monitored and censored.
  
  Mail sent to and from inmates in jails or prisons within the United States is subject to opening and review by jail or prison staff to determine if the mail has any criminal action dictated or provides means for an escape. The only mail that is not able to be read is attorney-client mail, which is covered under the attorney-client confidentiality laws in the United States.