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Comment by maweki | Hacker News Reader

Considering the people who would give out their zip-code in the supermarket at checkout, I would hazard the guess that the less technical crowd would opt in and that their feedback or telemetry on what makes a simple UI is more valuable.

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One of our local supermarkets could not check out until we gave them one, so we found some to give them.

For Belgium: https://www.bpost2.be/zipcodes/files/zipcodes_num_nl_new.htm...

Fun ones are 0612 (Saint Nicholas) or 1110 (NATO). We got great mileage out of 3 suisses until they went bankrupt.

Further random fact: The state and the postal services in Belgium don't always agree on the zip code. We found 1 location in Ghent where a monastery used to be, but it had been torn down and houses were built. The first inherited the address of the monastery, and hence had - on its own - a whole postal code, no street and no house number. But only for the postal services, not for the state (or the other way around, I dont remember). This location actually crashed the server for one geolocation provider.

Just to say, we are hackers, we're good at these games. They want a zip code? Find one for your country and feed it to them.

I remember a situation when after checkout an employee asked if I’d provide my zip code for statistical purposes. I politely declined and she froze, as if her brain didn’t know how to handle the exception.

But in the case of a checkout where you give info letting them track your purchases, you get discounts in return. Audacity isn't offering anything in return for opting in to telemetry.

What you're getting in return is improved UX and performance, albeit it is a more abstract and collective gain than discounts.

You also get (unless you are a contributor, I guess) a very capable and transparent music editing software for free.

In Germany I have never been offered a discount in that manner. Coupons are the only way to do this here.

I'm also German. Once, when I was asked for my zip code at checkout, I asked what they use it for. The cashier said it's being used to decide where to distribute physical advertisements (those store-branded magazines that land in your mailbox every week which list all the items that are on sale next week). I can't know how much truth there is to it, so take it with a grain of salt.

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