(no subject)

I'm a little weirded by internet sites which request your post-code in the sign up. In particular, Yahoo email requests this (which seems a reputable site). Why is this necessary? With a post-code you can get my location to within a few houses. I don't particularly want to give out that much detail. If it's for a general picture of where there users are, I'm quite happy to specify Manchester, UK.

Anyone know any good reasons why a website needs to know this?

(The other thing that bugged me was Yahoo insisted on knowing a gender and a occupation. I don't particularly think it needed my gender and I don't always want that known. And my occupation is again, none of their business.)