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Did You Do the Long Form?
mliu sent in: "An interesting article about how with modern methods it could be theoretically possible to link census data back to a person and the steps the Census Bureau is taking to prevent this." The marketers know so much now that even the general data the Census Bureau releases could possibly be linked up with Credit Bureau data... ouch.
But it should make you a little queasy. That meta-self that runs your life has been out there since the first person started collecting data. It isn't YOU that walks into a bank and asks for a loan. It isn't your suit that gets you that loan.
John Q. Banker smiles at the physical YOU and then goes and finds out about your meta-self. This person has much more clout in the world than you ever will. This person is your credit rating, your pay stubs, etc. That person means so much more.
And now the census. A huge compilation of data. The pot of gold at the end of the advertising/data mining rainbow. Of COURSE they will find a way to use it. It is just to valuable to the open market. This is an advertisers dream. Targeted information on a broad scale down to the very last detail.
And so the real question here lies in not whether the motivations are just for doing this. We made this situation by having a free market system. The question is what the census will do to protect that data, or how they will re-work their questions to protect the individual. Otherwise, there will be a huge resistance to ever filling out a census form again.
THAT would be a shame, because the census really does some good for people, as big and lumbering as it is.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Those are the ones that you have zero control over. Some #$%^@ accidentally put it into a shared medical database tha tI have AIDS. Now I can't get insurance. Banks won't give me loans nor credit cards. I have tests proving I don't have AIDS yet I cannot cleanse this false information because there is no way I can even know every medical data warehouse that has the info. It's like it's it's been posted to USENET. I send cancel messages but the original post still manages to live on all over the place.
The Census Bureau says it's your civic duty to answer these snooping questions. In reality, it's your patriotic duty to refuse to answer. You can strike a blow for privacy, equality, and liberty by declining to answer every question on the Census form except the one required by the Constitution: How many people live in your home?
The U.S. Constitution says the purpose of the Census is to make an "actual enumeration." That is, to take an accurate count of Americans for the purpose of apportioning congressional districts. But the federal government has gone far beyond that mandate. The long version of the Census -- which one in every six households will receive -- contains a whopping 52 questions. That's 51 more than the Constitution requires. Maybe that's why compliance with the Census had plummeted to just 65% by 1990.
Unfortunately, the government has ways of making you talk. Title 13, Chapter 7 of the U.S. code mandates a $100 fine for those who decline to answer Census questions. What kind of government demands, under penalty of law, reams of personal data -- including racial characteristics -- from its citizens? Ours does. That's why it's time for some polite, patriotic civil disobedience. If you care about privacy, genuine equality, and old-fashioned American liberty, the arrival of the Census form is your chance to literally stand up and be counted.
Tell them how many people live in your home, and that's all. Maybe $100 is a small price to pay for making a principled stand for privacy and freedom.
-snellac