
Never Give Stores Your Zip Code - draker
http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/06/19/theres-a-billion-reasons-not-to-give-stores-your-zip-code-ever/
======
eik3_de
I'm located in Germany and when asked I (and others I know) always say 25869.
That's Germany's smallest zip code, a remote island with only 5 people living
there. Stats should look funny for that zip :)

What's the smallest zip in the US?

~~~
pud
US zip code 20050 only has one house.

(The White House)

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Nursie
Had some 'fun' with this in the UK a while back.

I needed a modem there and then so went to a high street electronics store. I
got the empty box of the one I wanted down from the shelf, took it up front,
paid and they went to get me a full box from the back. 10 minutes later and
the assistant comes back. They have no modems.

This is mildly annoying, but fine, so I asked for my money back, which is when
they started demanding my name and address. When I refused the assistant went
to get the manager, who said they needed the details to process a refund. I
said it wasn't a refund, you took my cash without giving me a product. I
offered to call the police if this was giving them trouble and then it came
down to "well the software won't open the till without an address".

So... it's some programmer's fault!

~~~
buro9
You can usually invent a post code that is valid.

All major post offices have a suffix of 1AA.

For the prefix, you can usually use the letters from your prefix but change
the number to a 1 and if applicable any letters that follow the number to an
A.

So if your postcode is WC2E 9AB then just give WC1A 1AA.

Voila, valid post code for the main post office in any area.

Edit: This is legacy, a lot of the 1AA post-codes were recycled in the 1960s
when the post office underwent major re-structuring. It still works though.

~~~
Nursie
I eventually told the manager it was her problem and she should invent an
address. She appeared to agree with me, pressed a couple of buttons and asked
for the address again, so I made one up out of exasperation at the whole
thing.

\--edit-- thanks for the tip though, didn't know about that before.

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prodigal_erik
It's kind of crazy that people expect to go unidentified after having used a
debit or credit card with their name and a globally unique id on it. Anyone
who cares at all about it should have used cash.

~~~
bound008
Credit Card companies have rules in their merchant agreements that prevent
companies from using credit card numbers as unique identifiers.

~~~
mseebach
The last four digits of your CC is ~13 bits, the type of card a few more.
That, plus your name, and they should have a fairly good ID for you.

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signed0
When I worked in retail we asked everyone for their Zip code regardless of
their payment method. We were told that it was so that the store could
determine where their customers were coming from. Half the time we would just
type in the store's Zip Code so that we didn't have to bother the customer.

Gas stations on the other hand use Zip Codes as a way to prevent fraud. I've
had my card rejected before by typing in the wrong Zip Code.

~~~
galaktor
> Gas stations on the other hand use Zip Codes as a way to prevent fraud.

This also locks out customers with a non-US address (e.g. tourists) which
often don't even have a 5-digit zip code or store it differently so that the
check will fail, arguably defeating the entire point of owning a credit card.

~~~
signed0
I'm not sure if this is always the case.

ZipCar (a short term rental car company) provides a credit card that can be
used to pay for gas. When you insert the card at the pump, the machine only
asks for your ZipCar membership number.

This leads me to believe that perhaps a card that was issued in a foreign
country might prompt the user to enter something other than a Zip Code.

~~~
dlitz
Nope. I've done this with a Canadian card. It prompts for the zip code (at
least, at many gas stations along the east coast).

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CamperBob2
That's a shame. I've always given my ZIP code when asked, on the theory that
the retailer was using that information to determine where to open new stores.
If that's not the case, then they can have fun sending their snail-mail spam
to my namesake in 90210.

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ck2
If you ever need to return something they are entitled to your ID which has
your entire address anyway.

If they ever swipe your license on their mag scanner, it contains everything
about you.

Your state DMV sells your info to corporations for pennies, in fact sometimes
under law it's required to.

~~~
CaptainZapp

      If you ever need to return something they are entitled to your ID which has your entire address anyway.
    

Says who?

Or here's another scenario, which actually happened to me:

I bought office supplies and one of the items bought was accidentally scanned
twice.

I noticed this after paying, but immediately complained.

In order to refund _my_ money for _her_ mistake she insisted I provide my name
and address.

I lied. I very obviously wrote a non existing person at a non existing address
on the form she insisted I fill.

Do you think I was unjustified to lie in such a situation?

    
    
      Your state DMV sells your info to corporations for pennies, in fact sometimes under law it's required to.
    

Not in Europe, they don't. In fact: This would be illegal, if not actually
criminal.

~~~
lyso
They do actually do this in the UK

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9994089/DVLA-
made-10m...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9994089/DVLA-made-10m-in-
a-year-by-selling-on-names-and-addresses.html)

This is how car parking companies get your home address from your number plate
to write you threatening letters.

~~~
CaptainZapp

      The agency sold the details at a rate of around 50,000 a week, totalling 2.4 million in a year, to approved companies that give out parking fines and clamp cars.
    

Key here is probably "approved company". Even though: I admit it's a slippery
slope.

If they just sell such information to any shyster that asks (and pays) for it
there probably would be quite an uproar and it would almost certainly be
counter to the EU data protection directive.

~~~
Already__Taken
Approved company usually just means a BPA registered company, This is a trade
organisation made up of parking companies that has no government affiliation
at all. It's so parking companies can make a formal set of rules they agree to
oblige to self regulate with and avoid the government making real laws to stop
these people.

It really doesn't mean anything.

------
monkeypizza
Doesn't everyone just fill in 90210?

or does give away my age...

~~~
jaredsohn
There was a show called "90210" (a Beverly Hills 90210 spinoff) that Wikipedia
says just ended last month, so choosing that shouldn't show your age.
(Although your question obviously did.)

~~~
burgerz
that's not the 90210 he was talking about

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techtalsky
I've actually suspected this for years and my simple and polite response is,
"No, thanks." or "I don't give it out."

~~~
lancewiggs
Same. And I've always been willing to walk away, and usually have a polite
conversation with the check out person to help them understand why it is bad.

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quesera
Harvard's Data Privacy Lab runs a simple "identifiability" web site.

Submit your DOB, sex, and zip, and they'll tell you approximately how unique
you are therein, based on Census data.

[http://aboutmyinfo.net/](http://aboutmyinfo.net/)

Giving stores a false but consistent zip doesn't help, but using a new one
every time might. Or, if we could all agree on a false zip to use, that would
skew the data away from Census-based estimates. However, with DOB and gender
data, it might just ID us uniquely within the adopted HN zip code.

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darkspaten
I'm unable to produce the research link, ATM, however I attended a
presentation many years ago on the uniqueness value of this data. In the
presentation the researchers demonstrated >80% confidence interval determining
an exact individual from: (1) gender, (2) birth year, and (3) zip code. I
recall the interval was for zip codes with the greatest population density,
implying that more confidence was readily achievable in less populated zip
codes.

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tetha
This is a nice demonstration of the information explosion, which is the best
reason for privacy concerns. You hand out your zip code, probably figuring
that not much can be deducted from that and suddenly, they know your address,
from there on they can get an idea about your income (think about rent), maybe
about your general background and so on and so on. It's scary to think about
it like that.

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asperous
Doesn't this article completely miss the actual glaring privacy issue that
there is a database of name-address-phones out there that is complete enough
to only have a few duplicates that a simple zip takes care of?

Giving out your zip shouldn't be that big of a deal, the reason it is is
because your name and address is listed on whitepages ;)

~~~
makomk
That database is pretty much inevitable in the US, unfortunately. Even if you
don't list your name and address anywhere, it's easy enough for companies you
do business with to sell your details to such a database.

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zw123456
What if you just said something like 98123 give then the a fake one? What
would be the harm in that ?

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Stratoscope
This is one thing I like about shopping at Amazon and Newegg: I never have to
worry about them using my zip code to find my address for marketing purposes.

------
tmandarano
_edited_

Cashier: May I have your Zip Code? Me: F __* no!

~~~
saraid216
Does swearing make you feel more grown up?

~~~
nknighthb
Does being the language police make you feel more grown up?

~~~
saraid216
No, but successfully trolling three people while making my point does!

~~~
nknighthb
Are you sure you know what website you're on? Have you forgotten you have
identifying personal information in your profile? What do you anticipate
future employers' reactions being to discovering you are a proud troll? Do you
really think they'll want to work with you, or have your name associated with
their company?

~~~
saraid216
My ZIP is 98104. That should be able to get you my home address, if the noted
PII is not sufficient for you.

~~~
nknighthb
I don't want your home address, I want you to realize this isn't reddit,
4chan, or whatever other group home for thugs has convinced you that
deliberate antisocial behavior is normal or acceptable.

~~~
saraid216
Then you shouldn't have participated in that behavior.

