Complete UK Postcode Database on Wikileaks

[OwlHoot]

I keep an eye on Wikileaks every month or two, and in case anyone is interested, a file comprising every UK postcode (all 1,841,177 of them) with Geographic and other data as of July 2009 was posted there a couple of weeks ago.

We as taxpayers paid for it so help yourself

[PRC1964]

I keep an eye on Wikileaks every month or two, and in case anyone is interested, a file comprising every UK postcode (all 1,841,177 of them) with Geographic and other data as of July 2009 was posted there a couple of weeks ago.

We as taxpayers paid for it so help yourself

That looks interesting.

Thanks

[TimberWolf]

Cool!

Many's the time I've wanted this kind of info, the best I've had previously is a file with just the outward portion.

Based on a very quick look, the data may need a bit of cleaning. For instance the outward and inward postcode parts are sometimes space separated, sometimes not and sometimes have a carriage return. At least that was the state by the time I copied from Linux to Windoze.

[TimberWolf]

It imports okay into Access & Excel though. All 1.8 million postcodes. Cool. Will have fun playing with that later.

[NickFitz]

I thought everybody already knew about this - it was all over the tech news sites, and has been mentioned in The Guardian. El Reg's report is nearly three weeks old.

There are a number of limitations: for example it doesn't actually include the PAF (Postal Address File) data, so it mainly just maps post codes to latitude and longitude; this information is already available via sources such as Yahoo's GeoPlanet API, which draws on this data via a legitimate licence.

More importantly, many people are reluctant to use it for anything that may draw attention to them because of the strong likelihood that there is poisoned data in there: information that is incorrect, doesn't impede the normal use of the dataset, yet can be used to prove theft of copyrighted material. Cartographers commonly use such techniques - a kink in a river, or a small copse, that don't actually exist; the A-Z people include non-existent footpaths or cul-de-sacs on their maps so they can prove that somebody has copied their data without attribution and the associated licensing fees. Dictionaries also often include non-existent words.

So although it's nice to have in terms of the curiosity value, if you intend to build something other than for your own enjoyment then you might be better off using one of the free APIs that already offer this data (and have integrated it with much larger datasets), or just licensing it yourself.

I'll have a play with it for my own entertainment, but I'm not seeing anything in there that I don't already get for free from other legitimate sources.

[NickFitz]

BTW, Buckingham Palace's record is located at offset 0x0C5A80D3

[MrMark]

I thought everybody already knew about this - it was all over the tech news sites, and has been mentioned in The Guardian. El Reg's report is nearly three weeks old.

There are a number of limitations: for example it doesn't actually include the PAF (Postal Address File) data, so it mainly just maps post codes to latitude and longitude; this information is already available via sources such as Yahoo's GeoPlanet API, which draws on this data via a legitimate licence.

More importantly, many people are reluctant to use it for anything that may draw attention to them because of the strong likelihood that there is poisoned data in there: information that is incorrect, doesn't impede the normal use of the dataset, yet can be used to prove theft of copyrighted material. Cartographers commonly use such techniques - a kink in a river, or a small copse, that don't actually exist; the A-Z people include non-existent footpaths or cul-de-sacs on their maps so they can prove that somebody has copied their data without attribution and the associated licensing fees. Dictionaries also often include non-existent words.

So although it's nice to have in terms of the curiosity value, if you intend to build something other than for your own enjoyment then you might be better off using one of the free APIs that already offer this data (and have integrated it with much larger datasets), or just licensing it yourself.

I'll have a play with it for my own entertainment, but I'm not seeing anything in there that I don't already get for free from other legitimate sources.

Interesting reading on the Mountweazel effect here.
Here's another place to get postcode data

[AtW]

the A-Z people include non-existent footpaths or cul-de-sacs on their maps

That explains a lot last time I used their maps in London!

[SlimRick]

Excellent - now if somebody here could just pop that into a MapInfo table for me it would be much appreciated...Ta!

[thunderlizard]

We as taxpayers paid for it so help yourself

Is that an argument? If so I wonder when can I have my fire engine?