JunkMailed

A recent ruling by the California Supreme Court sheds some light on how a retailer can identify a person given very little information.

The ruling, stems from a case where a woman was asked for her zip code when paying at a Williams-Sonoma store with a credit card, shows that retailers can very easily use a name and zip code to find the exact address for an individual using large databases of personal information.

I always assumed that retailers just wanted to know demographic information on their customers when they asked for zip codes, but clearly it is about getting people on a mailing list.