April 3, 2003 15:48:47 EST Received
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UNITED STATES
POSTAL SERVICE
April 1, 2003
..
Mr. Jason Pyeron
Pyerotechnics Development, Inc. -
500 West University Parkway, # l S
Baltimore, Maryland 21 21 0-3253
Re: Freedom of Information Act Appeal No. 03-072
Dear Mr. Pyeron:
This is in response to your letter dated February 6, 2003, in which you seek to
appeal the partial denial of your request for information pursuant to the Freedom
of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 9 552. In a letter dated October 29, 2002, you
requested a “list containing the associated information for each address, city,
state, zip, +4, latitude, longitude”. In a letter dated December 31, 2002, Michael
Garner, Manager of Address Management, informed you that although an actual
list of addresses would not be provided, the remaining data, (zip+4 associated
with latitude and longitude data) was available through the Topological Integrated
Geographic Encoding and Referencing/Zip+4 file and that the National data could
be obtained at a cost of $700.00, and in the alternative, individual state
information was available at a cost of $50.00 each.
In a letter dated January 6, 2003, and in your recent appeal, you suggest that the
office of Address Management failed to provide you an adequate response, and
that the fees for providing the information were not “valid direct costs”. We have
reviewed your request, the responses provided, and are satisfied that you were
provided accurate information. And for the following reasons we are upholding
Mr. Garner’s decision.
9
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) generally requires government agencies
to disclose records within their possession. The Act contains several
exemptions, however, that permit agencies to withhold certain information.
5 U.S.C. 5 552(b)(1)-(9). In this case, the information you requested (list of
addresses) is exempt from disclosure pursuant to FOIA exemption 3 in
conjunction with our regulation at 39 U.S.C. 5 412.
475 L’ENFANT PLAZA SW
WASHINGTON DC 20260
WWW.USPS COM

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FOlA exemption 3 provides that agencies may withhold records that are
“specifically exempted from disclosure by statute . . . .I’ 5 U.S.C. 5 552(b)(3).
Postal Service regulation 39 U.S.C. 5 41 2 provides the following:
“Except as specifically provided by law, no officer or employee of
the Postal Service shall make available to the public by any means
or for any purpose any mailing or other list of names or addresses
(past or present) of postal patrons or other persons”.
Therefore, based on FOlA exemption 3 in conjunction with our regulation cited
above, we are prohibited from providing lists of addresses to the public, and
therefore, that portion of your request was appropriately denied. You also
requested (in your letter January 6, 2003) that the Postal Service provide you with
our definition of “address”. The Postal Service defines address as follows:
“The location to which the USPS is to deliver or return a mailpiece.
It consists of certain elements such as recipient name, street name
and house number, and city, state, and zip code as required by the
mail class”. (U.S.P.S. Publication 32, Glossary of Postal Terms,
May 1997)
We hope that this clarifies our position on the matter of providing lists of addresses
to the public.
Finally, you ask that the fee for the remaining portion of your request, (zip+4
together with latitude and longitude data - Tiger Zip+4 file) be waived.
Postal regulations governing the waiver of fees permit waiver of a fee when it is
determined that furnishing the records is deemed to be in the public interest, and
is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or
activities of the federal government and is not primarily for the commercial
criteria are met, several factors are considered. These factors include the
informative value to the general public of the information to be disclosed and
whether the disclosure is primarily in the requester’s commercial interest. We
have interpreted your desire to obtain the Tiger/Zip+4 data to be for your
commercial interest.
interest of the requester. (39 C.F.R. 265,9(g)(3) In determining whether these , *
Additionally, because the information from the Tiger/Zip+4 file is already available
for sale to the public, release to you without cost would neither promote or further
the public’s understanding of the operations or activities of the federal
government, and accordingly your request for a fee waiver is denied.
This is the final decision of the Postal Service on your right of access pursuant to
the Freedom of Information Act to these records. You may seek judicial review


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april 3, 2003 15:48:47 EST Received
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of this decision by bringing suit for that purpose in the United States District Court
for the district in which you reside or have your principal place of business, the
district in which the records are located, or in the District of Columbia.
For the General Counsel,
Fhief Counsel
Customer Protection and Privacy
Law Department
,-