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In a few stores here in Australia, I am asked for my post code (or country of residence if no post code) by the cashier when ringing up a sale. Predominantly a
by cyberferret 9y ago
In a few stores here in Australia, I am asked for my post code (or country of residence if no post code) by the cashier when ringing up a sale. Predominantly at tourist/tour related points of sale, but I've also had it an electronics and white goods stores.
No idea if the operator is also recording gender and perceived age group etc., but I do know that on most occasions, you can opt not to answer the post code question.
- punk_coder 9y agoI'm not sure if it's true, but a friend once told me the reason a store asked for your zip code was to see if they had a large audience coming from a certain area. This let them know other locations to possibly open other stores.
- Spooky23 9y agoThe GM of the big box that I worked at 25 years ago said that the zip code thing was to measure the "destinationness" of the store. In our case, the average big ticket buyer travelled an average of 30 miles, which was awesome in that it made the end caps more valuable.
- aaron695 9y agoI've heard (unsure if true) it was to reduce entropy. IE they keep the last 4 digits of your credit card, combined with a post code you have a unique id.
- heywire 9y agoNot necessary, most point of sale systems can provide a unique hashed or tokenized version of the account number for analytics and identification purposes.
- alsetmusic 9y agoAs far back as 2000, my partner was asked for her zip code as we made a purchase and I curtly replied "no comment," to the surprise of everyone there. She walked for her phone number, which really irritated me because this was a $5 retail purchase of some type), and I got more curt when I said, "You don't need that!" I've been annoyed by this stuff long before most people were ready to consider privacy concerns anything more than paranoia.
- jabagonuts 9y agoI like to give fake numbers in these situations. The way I see it, intentionally supplying bogus data is one of the only ways we have left to fight the machines and their algorithms!
- rhizome 9y agoMy father had memorized a fake Social Security Number that had come as a sample card in a wallet he got in the 1950s. When anybody except the government asked for his SSN and who wouldn't relent on his pushback, he would give them that number.
- kalleboo 9y agoIt wasn't 078-05-1120? https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/misused.html https://www.ssa.gov/history/ssn/misused.html
- rhizome 9y agoWow, nice! I don't know if he was one of the 12 in 1977, but he would have been if this is the number he used. Woolworth's totally makes sense. If he were alive, he would poop purple Twinkies at that story. Thanks!
- matt_wulfeck 9y agoHow does that work for him for things that do credit checks?
- rhizome 9y agoHe's been dead for 10 years, but he didn't use it for those. As I remember it, in the 80s-90s it was more common for SSNs to be requested for normal consumer things.
- thatwebdude 9y ago
- adenner 9y agoSometimes the credit card terminal will ask especially at gas pumps for my zip code as an anti fraud measure, and will reject the transaction of you enter the wrong number. If a cashier is asking I always use 90210.
- lucaspiller 9y agoI had same issue when visiting the US. I tried some fake numbers but it wouldn't accept it (my actual postal code has letters, so that wasn't possible), so I just ended up paying by cash.
- Nullabillity 9y agoDid you try your postal code minus the letters? Afaik[1] usually only the numbers in your address are verified anyway. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_Verification_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_Verification_System
- mhandley 9y agoMy UK postal code only has two numeric digits, whereas I seem to recall the US gas pumps require five digits. Just means you can't pay at the pump.
- daemin 9y agoPost codes in Australia are just 4 numbers, so when buying subway tickets in NYC, I just put in 10000 or something (I believe that's close enough to the local code?).
- Freak_NL 9y agoI guess a lot of people not from the US will use 90210 when prompted for a US postal code. I can't even remember what the show was about (except that it was set in Beverly Hills, obviously), but the number stuck.
- 6nf 9y ago
- gumby 9y agoI always give the post code of the shop, if I know it, or one nearby that I do know.
- niclupien 9y agoWait, why do you know the post codes of the places you shop?
- gumby 9y agoWait, you don't? :-) Seriously, I mostly shop in the same neighbourhoods. And when not, there's often something on the counter with their address...or I can give a mate's address and let him get the junk mail....
- plink 9y agoBy cross-referencing your name (from your credit/debit card) with your zip/post-code, stores are able to determine specifically who you are with greater probability than without the zip/post-code.
- DigitalJack 9y agoThis is the correct answer.
- abcd_f 9y agoWith near 100% probability actually. There was a detailed report on that few years ago. Googling for "why stores ask for the zip code" brings up a lot of press post, e.g. https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/06/19/theres-a-billion-reasons-not-to-give-stores-your-zip-code-ever/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/06/19/theres-a-...
- closeparen 9y agoIsn't it a credit card security feature? That's what it's for at gas stations.
- khedoros1 9y agoI think they mean if a salesperson asks you for it, rather than when you put it in for a credit transaction.
- bigbugbag 9y agoCorrection, that what they pretend it is for at gas stations. 99,99% of the time when asked a piece of personal data it is for cross-referencing or other privacy invading purpose.
- tomjen3 9y agoOf course you can refuse, but you can also just give them a false one.
- dis-sys 9y agoWhen you go to those weekend open inspections in Sydney, you are almost guaranteed to be asked for your postcode. They record that as well. I actually did some experiments - for different properties in roughly the same area/price range, I told different real estate agents different postcodes. It is beyond reasonable doubt that the code you tell them play a huge role on how they rank you as potential buyers. When you tell them a random north shore post code, you are guaranteed to receive a nice & friendly follow up on the coming Monday, however if you tell them that you live in the west (when mostly inspecting north shore properties), they would smile and immediately end the whole conversation. The sample size here is ~50, which I believe is big enough to draw some reasonable conclusions.
- stirlo 9y agoIf you give them a mobile phone number (which they all ask for) they will simply use that to track you far more closely than than can with a postcode
- porker 9y agoHow? As far as I know a commercial company can't get your location or other personal information just by knowing your mobile phone number?
- bigbugbag 9y agoYou are fooling yourself here. They probably have a whole data cake already, they want the mobile number as a cherry topping on this cake. You know about the anonymized and aggregated data that one can buy ? Well it can be easily anonymized and deaggregated. The good part is that you don't even have to do it yourself and go directly to data brokers that have done the hard work for you.
- i336_ 9y agoComing from the standpoint of a very curious independent researcher, I'm curious what I might query/search for to learn more about these data brokers. Not at all out of anything that might be categorized as malice, just to add this datapoint to my mental map.