I received an advertisement from T-Mobile in the mail today where they must have gotten my data from some website that forced me to fill out personal information
this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2026
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Heads up, the 9 digit zip code (xxxxx-xxxx) alone is as valid of a mailing address as any "full" address.
That is to say, by leaving the full zip, you've low key exposed the actual address, which can be found with a quick google search.
Hey, maybe Fuck Off wants free stickers mailed to them.
Or a potato
well, that goes without saying
Surely the last 4 digits don't point to an exact house. I'm fairly certain my zip code has more than 9999 houses. It does seem like it would get you pretty close though.
Zip+four is only down the the block level, you need 2 more digits (zip+6) to uniquely identify every possible address in the US. That said, a 9 digit barcode is way too close to a full address for most people to be comfortable with sharing online.
I suppose I grew up semirural, so growing up, my zip plus 4 identified my single house. Good to know that's not thexactly the case all the time. Still, pretty identifying.
It narrows it down to a delivery truck at least.
I went down a brief rabbit hole on the zip+4 and the IMb (intelligent mailer barcode). The +4 was originally a local division inside a single zipcode, like a neighborhood or mail route. +4 and the barcode was then called POSTNET -- decommissioned and now upgraded barcode encoding to IMb, which can contain like 2000 bits of data. The zip +4 technically now has a length of 11 digits, and is inside a IMb barcode.
Conclusion, barcodes have sensitive data too. ~✍️
edit add: i wanted to see if my phone's barcode app could scan too see if OP's post office really calls him Mr. Off, but it cant natively read mailer codes and I fell asleep and the rabbit hole ended.
TIL
1-8-5-0-5 dash 7-4-2-7
Neighborhood pride
Sure but why do you care? It's not like they did anything it was the guy who mailed this to them and all they did was a mildly funny prank.
Because leaving your adress on the Internet, even if only vaguely precise is not very smart and safe so its good to warn people?
Leave it to Internet users to take offense to a friendly warning lol
Uh, username checks out.