Will Your Answers To the Census Stay Private?

Hugh Pickens writes "James Bovard writes in the Christian Science Monitor that Americans are told that information gathered in the census will never be used against them and the House of Representatives, in a Census Awareness Month resolution passed March 3, proclaimed that 'the data obtained from the census are protected under United States privacy laws.' Unfortunately, thousands of Americans who trusted the Census Bureau in the past lost their freedom as a result. In the 1940 Census, the Census Bureau loudly assured people that their responses would be kept confidential. Within four days of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Census Bureau had produced a report listing the Japanese-American population in each county on the West Coast. The Census Bureau's report helped the US Army round up more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans for concentration camps (later renamed 'internment centers'). In 2003-04, the Census Bureau provided the Department of Homeland Security with a massive cache of information on how many Arab Americans lived in each ZIP Code around the nation, and which country they originated from — information that could have made it far easier to carry out the type of mass roundup that some conservatives advocated. 'Instead of viewing census critics as conspiracy theorists, the nation's political leaders should recognize how their policies have undermined public faith in government,' writes Bovard. 'All the census really needs to know is how many people live at each address. Citizens should refuse to answer any census question except for the number of residents.'"

Comments

Re:first post?

[Flounder]

American Male, 39. And that's ALL the information they are getting out of me.

Odd definition of private

[canajin56]

The whole point is to get pictures of various populations and how they're distributed. TFA is basically saying "They promise it's private but then they announce the US population. How did they count them if they are private!!!!!" These nutjobs think that privacy means as soon as they get your form they put it in a shredder. They're trying to imply that having an estimate on the number of arabs in a given area is the same thing as having each of their addresses on file and ready to go, like they had in WW2. It's also hilarious that all of the "Swear allegiance to the flag, the Federal Government uber alles! Anybody who questions the government deserves death, hang them high, you are a traitor if you question!" have made an instantaneous 180 and are now screaming "Resist, the government is the ultimate evil, don't pay taxes, don't fill out forms, shoot to kill!" FOX news pundits are even saying they hope and pray there's another 9/11 scale terrorist attack to give them an excuse to "eliminate" Obama. After all, he made America unsafe by "brutally neutering" the military by making a "dramatic cut" to the defense budget by increasing by not as much as they wanted. While they simultaniously decry him for being a big budget liberal by increasing military spending...

Re:Census Info Ultimately Becomes Public

[LordKazan]

You're also not a reactionary douchebag who doesn't like that there is a mean black man in the white house who wants to spend money taking care of our own people instead of bombing the middle east.

You don't put your political team and your insanity before the good of your country and those who live in it.

Re:I agree

[Hatta]

That's why it's important that my doctor know my race. Why is it important that my government know my race?

Re:Useful to whom? The racists who care about skin

[Anonymous Coward]

Then they can do their own damned study and spend their own money to do it rather than piggyback on a Federally mandated study.

Why? That's just a waste of time and money. Since the government is already sending out a census form it's much more efficient to just use the demographics information it collects.

Re:Useful to whom? The racists who care about skin

[LordKazan]

says who? we collect the information anyway - statistics aren't harming anyone. and I'm sure at some point someone sued over the release of them and it was found constitutional.

What's your issue?

Re:Useful to whom? The racists who care about skin

[pla]

Medical researchers who would like to know the demographics of an area and how they affect various health issues Demographers who research race/ethnicity and a whole host of things

Yes. Yes, they would. And I would like a flying unicorn that farts rainbows.

Too bad Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the US Constitution doesn't allow collecting that information - Or anything except for number of residents, and that established legal precedent (since 1894, and never reversed) expressly forbids the government collecting anything else under the guise of the "census".


i could go on, but you've clearly got an axe to grind.

Damned straight we do! The US government has repeatedly shown itself incapable of responsibly carrying out its duty to enumerate (and nothing more) the citizens for the sole purpose of apportioning our representatives.

If the government had historically refrained from abusing its power, we might have a different conversation here; as it stands - I answered question #1 with "2", and left the rest blank.

Oh, and those scaaaaary spooooky fines? They haven't issued a census-related fine since 1970, when a Hawaiian man challenged his $50 fine in court - And won.

Re:Useful to whom? The racists who care about skin

[Curunir_wolf]

You're reading it wrong.

No where in the Constitution does it state that the government can do whatever it wants as long as it serves some nebulous "government purpose.".

What it does state, quite clearly, is that power belongs in the hands of the people, and they have granted the government a few, limited, enumerated duties. Anything else they want to do, they have to ask the People first, and an overwhelming majority of them have to agree to it.

Re:You know what's really sad?

[roman_mir]

According to the traditions of human beings (especially the traditions of Native Americans): If you conquer it, you ARE the rightful owner.

- finally someone with common sense. When I see things around them, I know that they are all my things, all I have to do is take them. I don't care if you worked for those things, as long as I can take them away from you, they are my things. You are just keeping them for me temporarily, until I decide that I need them. Society is to be used as long as it is profitable for me. Nothing should be given back to it unless I feel generous that day.

Re:Who advocated rounding up the arab population?

[smooth wombat]

Why yes, yes I did. And unintentionally I might add.

For whatever reason, I missed that entire paragraph in the original article but found the quote on The American Conservative web site.

Regardless, I'm certain there is documented evidence for some conservatives wanting to round up Arabs after 9/11. I'm figuring Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh would have been the first ones to make such comments.