Editing ZIP Code (section)

=== Marketing ===
The data is often used in [[Advertising mail|direct mail marketing]] campaigns in ZIP-code marketing. [[Point of sale|Point-of-sale]] cashiers sometimes ask consumers for their home ZIP Codes. Besides providing purchasing-pattern data useful in determining the location of new business establishments, retailers can use directories to correlate this ZIP Code with the name on a credit card to obtain a consumer's full address and [[telephone number]]. ZIP-Coded data are also used in analyzing geographic risk factors, an insurance and banking industry practice pejoratively known as [[redlining]]. This can cause problems, ''e.g.'', expensive insurance, for people living near a town with a high crime rate and sharing its ZIP Code, while they live in a relatively crime-free town.

California outlawed this practice in 2011.<ref>{{Cite news | title=California high court: Retailers can not request cardholders' ZIP Code | url=http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/10/california.credit.zip.code/index.html | last=Botelho | first=Greg | publisher=CNN | date=February 10, 2011 | access-date=February 11, 2011 | archive-date=November 10, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110023619/http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/10/california.credit.zip.code/index.html | url-status=live }}</ref>