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We need to liberate the Postcode Address File

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk

11–20 of 317 posts

Re: We need to liberate the Postcode Address File

#11
Sad to see a reasonable article with a "This one weird trick could save..." as an ad inline, pointing back to his own page. I tend to think of such ad tactics and wordage to be associated with used car salesmen. Certainly, with scams.

Re: We need to liberate the Postcode Address File

#12
post #10

On the other side of the Channel, the French government has managed to create the "BAN" (Base Adresse Nationale - National Address Database), a database of detailed postal addresses in the country along with precise GPS coordinates: https://adresse.data.gouv.fr/base-adresse-nationale On top of the database they have provided an interface to view the data, interfaces for towns and cities to keep the data up-to-date, f…

Even in the far right US postcodes are public info :)

Re: We need to liberate the Postcode Address File

#13
post #7
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a lookup between postcode and address, what is the abuse cases you're worried about?

Considering that in UK if you live in a building, the door next to you can have a different postcode, I wouldn't worry at all

If that weren't true, you'd have entire cities in the same postcode. There has to be a boundary somewhere.

Re: We need to liberate the Postcode Address File

#14
post #2

I can respect the arguments for making it public but there are strong arguments also to raise a high barrier of entry to discourage abuse. Further, the fewer users of the list, they easier they are to police.

Yeah, maybe you should pay a subscription to know your own post code...

Re: We need to liberate the Postcode Address File

#15
post #2

I can respect the arguments for making it public but there are strong arguments also to raise a high barrier of entry to discourage abuse. Further, the fewer users of the list, they easier they are to police.

What nonsense. Are you worried about physical spam mail? That ship has already sailed. I genuinely can’t think of any other abuse vector for a dataset like this.

Re: We need to liberate the Postcode Address File

#16
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that in UK if you live in a building, the door next to you can have a different postcode, I wouldn't worry at all

If that weren't true, you'd have entire cities in the same postcode. There has to be a boundary somewhere.

Odd numbered homes on one side of the street and evens on the other often have different postcodes

Re: We need to liberate the Postcode Address File

#17
post #4

Australia also has ours locked away privately. You can purchase access, but... You also need to sign a contract that you won't make the PDF, or anything you derive from it, publicly accessible. (At least, that was the case the ladt time I did). [0] https://auspost.com.au/business/marketing-and-communications...

Isn't this G-NAF? https://geoscape.com.au/solutions/g-naf/

Re: We need to liberate the Postcode Address File

#18
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that weren't true, you'd have entire cities in the same postcode. There has to be a boundary somewhere.

Odd numbered homes on one side of the street and evens on the other often have different postcodes

Postcodes are about sorting mail to match the delivery rounds.

Re: We need to liberate the Postcode Address File

#19
post #11

Sad to see a reasonable article with a "This one weird trick could save..." as an ad inline, pointing back to his own page. I tend to think of such ad tactics and wordage to be associated with used car salesmen. Certainly, with scams.

That’s the joke.
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