Results of recent research have shown that an uncannily accurate personal profile can be made from something as innocuous as your postcode. Think of the number of times you fill this information in - it happens so often you don't really think about it. Type in your postcode on a website and up pops your address, just like magic.



There's an enormous database which is based on facts related to individuals credit card spending, loan applications, loyalty cards and census details which are all used to create these profiles. Companies can then utilise the information gleaned from this database to put people into pigeonholes according to things like career choice, their spending habits, choices of holiday destinations and types of activities and expected life-span.

So you'd like to know just how well the schools perform in an area you're thinking of moving to. Go on-line and find out. The same goes for average house prices, hospital services and admissions and crime statistics.

It seems that you're one of sixty one specific types of people, who've been "tagged" by Experian, the financial services company. The system which they employ is called MOSAIC and they can discover your personal profile just by finding out your post-code. Bearing in mind that a postcode can cover just a handful of homes in a specific road, they claim a good degree of accuracy. This claim is backed up by a very well qualified and respected sociologist who states that they are "frighteningly accurate".

Having chosen two areas in different parts of the UK, he checked the results against Experian's data base and noted that even where the houses were similar; there were obvious changes where the post code altered. Types and numbers of cars in the driveways of homes and updated homes and extensions were evident and were very much in line with Experian's findings.

Other firms offer systems which work in much the same way to the MOSAIC and they all offer their results for various companies to purchase in order to gain up do date and accurate research results. Insurance companies are interested in figures on life expectancy and claims in specific post code areas, which are then used when pricing policies. Break-ins, vandalism, theft and personal safety figures are used in the same way for the various types of insurance.

It's not just the insurance industry that buys information in this way. Developing businesses such as car dealerships, furniture stores and supermarkets take advantage of this knowledge about their potential customers to target mail shots to the right people at the right time.

Have you ever wondered why your junk mail seems so prolific? It's not all bad, though. Government and public bodies can also make use of information to target services where they're needed and to help with forward planning.

The health service can obtain valuable information when it comes to assessing who is at risk from particular diseases, meaning that a group assessed in this way could be given health information and the issues could be addressed. This method has been used by the fire service with the result being that they have been able to find information regarding past fire insurance claims and then been able to offer advice on fire prevention. It's not just the postman who finds your postcode invaluable.