USPS now offers official ZIP Code boundary polygons

Re:USPS now offers official ZIP Code boundary polygons by Manuel_D on Monday November 09, 2026 @11:05PM (#50435935)

There's still the overhead cost of collecting this data and the operational cost of delivering it. Many government functions charge money because it's unsustainable if they don't.

For example in Seattle people can request body cam footage arbitrarily. But the faces and identifying info of witnesses and victims need to be redacted which takes time and money. Someone started bulk requesting almost all body cam footage, and that placed a big cost on the police department. Now they charge $17 per body cam request.

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Re:USPS now offers official ZIP Code boundary polygons by srdjanr on Tuesday November 10, 2026 @03:28AM (#50437553)

But in this case, collecting the data is already a part of USPS core business so there isn't much overhead. And there's no individual processing needed per request like in your body cam example.

[ Parent | on HN ]