Did anyone else receive one of these? According to their web site, US Code Title 13, sections Section 141 and Section 193 your response is required by law.
In reality, those sections outline that The Secretary (who is presumably defined elsewhere) can take surveys as a part of their census process. It is Section 221 that requires you to respond:
Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided…
That’s just a crock.
Oh, sure, census information is useful and all that. It’s just the principal of it. I guess I’ll have to ask the nice lady who came to my door for some evidence that she is an authorized officer or employee of the Deparment of Commerce, or a bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of The Secretary.
Heck, I’d pay the $100 if it weren’t for Title 18, Section 3571 (allegedly Section 3559 as well, but that seems to deal with imprisonment and not monetary fines). With it on the books, the “not greater than $100” fine becomes “not greater than $5000” fine. That really blows.
Comments
718 responses to “American Community Survey”
American citizen,
It is not uncommon for conartists to use gov agency as a cover for their scams. The was a recent email scam which used a good copy of the IRS logos to collect bank and SS# info. Watch for more scams as the 2010 census approaches. Just because a person has an ID doesn’t mean it isn’t fake. Most of the public could not tell the difference between the real thing and a fake. During the house visits for the 2000 census, there were lots of complains about phony CB workers as well as CB workers who were not screened sufficiently to prevent their employment. In addition, the use of handheld computers for the 2010 census has been scraped. All that money wasted. Our government’s hard work down the drain. So it’s back to pencil and paper for the next census.
I just got my first evening phone call! My caller ID showed that it was the Census Bureau but I answered anyway because I want them to know how I feel. I’m so excited that the future direction of our country depends on my answering the questions. They just can’t make decisions without it. The guy was very nice but I told him that the questions were too intrusive, and he told me that all personally identifiable info was stripped off when the data was entered. I said, then why ask it? and he didn’t have an answer. He did say that he thought the same thing when he first saw the questions. I told him it would be fine to ask for our ages but not the birthdays. Said that schools would need to know which class to put a person in, etc? Told him that I understood the desire to know if we have jobs but we weren’t about to give out the names and address’ of our employers, etc. He was trained to believe that collecting the data was just fine and good and wasn’t prepared to address the “why” of the questions. Then he told me we could just answer ‘Person A’ Person B, etc and just aproximate the other answers. I said “I’m treatened with a fine for giving false answers too” I was not rude but I ended our little talk by telling him that I understood how hard his job must be but that we were not going to participate. I think he was personally understanding of my position, but I do not think this will be the last phone call.
I have never gotten a survey but one time before 9/11 I received a call from someone who said they were taking a survey and were under the U.S. Census Bureau. They started asking me if I was a jew, if I had children, their names and addresses, if anyone in my family was a jew.
I told them I did not feel comfortable telling anyone that and they asked “why?”. I said it sound scary- like the holocaust and what Hitler did. They tried to convince me that was not what they were doing. I told them how I didn’t know but what they would come to my house to try to arrest me or take me out in the middle of the night.
Later I tried contacting the census bureau and they said they didn’t have anyone like that. I also tried to see if my phone had a number but I don’t think it worked when I tried to call back and of course i forgot to write the name of the person down. (I was in the laundry room downstairs)
So when my daughter said she got the survey, I said that sounds like an invasion of privacy. Plus I remember the previous call.
It sounds like it goes against the constitution. (especially the sex questions and what time I go to work. anyone could pose as a survey taker.
Years ago I remember a “gov. agent” came to my aunt’s house and asked a lot of questions and said she had to answer them. They asked if she had diamonds or furs . She got mad and cussed and told them it was none of their business. They told her they were to charge a “tax” on those items. She said well I wouldn’t tell you if I did or didn’t have them. And she refused to tell them anything personnal.
Scary though what they try to make” you think” you have to tell.
Vt Cynic,
The reason why you can’t find unfavorable stories about the ACS is because of the CB’s “rapid response team” which will swoop in and convince the media, congressman, etc that our cooperation is essential to the success of the data mining. Worldnet Daily has a few articles on the ACS. (Just search the site for the ACS. ) There are other published articles which can no longer be accessed most likely due to CB intervention. Since noone will be fined, The CB counts on harassment and intimidation to gain information. Since the ACS runs under the radar, the CB has supplied state governments, libraries, and churches with the benefits of the public particpating in this survey. The only thing which will stop this survey, is a congressional budget cut. All of this personal info is being fed to a huge group of behavorial and social scientists. Further, this survey is a screening tool to select residences for other voluntary surveys.
We received a copy of the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey this week addressed to “RESIDENT”, and informing us that compliance is mandatory, under penalty of law.
The first questions on the form are your name, Social Security #, and phone #. By the way, the form says, right there in black & white, that the US Census Bureau will protect our identities, and that employees who infringe on our privacy can be fined up to $250,000. Do you trust the US Census Bureau, its computer system, and all its employees (down to the poll-taker who comes to your home to harass you after non-compliance with the mail-in and telephone queries) to not only keep your personal data safe, but to not share it with other government agencies or individuals who could then use the data against you (i.e., cross indexing your ethnicity against your income and income sources and/or your travel patterns).
I called our so-called Independent Senator, Bernie Sanders, to get his take on it. I got the Census 101 speech by the office lackey. Then she asked my name and address… Of course, this is exactly the problem. All these damned federal employees want to know who I am. I haven’t bothered calling Senator Leahy or Congressman Welch just yet… after all, isn’t Bernie always spouting off about civil liberties? He’s a politician who talks a good game.
I wanted to make this an issue. But politicians will not encourage or support a lawbreaker, as the lackey clearly told me. And the mainstream media has ignored the implications for privacy and protection thereof, even though the track record of the US Census Bureau is proven — our personal data is NOT SAFE.
Do some Google searches on the American Community Survey, and see if you can find one news story about it or complaints regarding the law or noncompliance. Why do the news media ignore the thousands of complaints they receive about this issue? Of course, you get published in a letter to the editor, but you can only respond to news that’s been in the paper — and there’s the conundrum. All this talk of privacy and the Internet is sexy. It’s not sexy to get into a political story about why our Congressional representatives are allowing the Department of Commerce to aggregate this data for their campaign contributors, to ask uncomfortable questions, to help protect individual freedoms.
Seen any Government laptops around lately? If so, you may have had access to data that correlates income, travel patterns, professional details, workplace, and other personal data to help you not only identify any respondent and their residence, but to also assume their identity!
Forget about the fact that information about American Japanese in WWII and Arab-Americans after 9-11 was given over to government interrogators by Census employees!
I am happy to answer population questions. I want the government to know how many people live here, and even how our complexion is changing, and how Americans become low-wage earning slaves of the corporations to which the government will provide access to this data for the purposes of selling us stuff.
But I will never provide my name or personal data — or that of the people for whom I am responsible — to a government agency other than the IRS, and I do that against my will as it is, only under threat of imprisonment or of leins on my property, which would be extremely inconveneient for my marriage, fatherhood, and happiness.
Both of these agencies are illegitimate and unconstitutional. The USCB because it cannot mandate participation or truthfulness, and the IRS because we are taxed for services by a federal government who would use our own resources to mandate unconstitutional behavior (such as submitting to questions against our will).
The CB has its own deadlines outlined in its operations manual. Each survey is barcoded to provide the info as to when a survey is sent. You are given 2 weeks to respond to the first survey. After the 90 day harrassment cycle a resident is off the hook for responding Rarely, but occasionally, the harassment has lasted an additional month.
A loop-hole:
The ACS does not have a specified due date. The envelope and cover page state to “return it as soon as possible”. Does that mean minutes? hours? days? weeks? years? It should have stated something like: “within 30 days of receiving”, but it doesn’t.
I know my taxes are due April 15th. How about the ACS? Has anyone stumbled upon a deadline?
OBTW–
It’s not likely you’ll ever get arrested or fined–unless of course if you hit the Census Enroller–because of the above mentioned 2005 Statistical Policy Report on Disclosure.
They must know it’ll never stick in a court of law–not until they change their procedures, start minimizing the usage and monitoring the release of data as well as strictly regulating the Dataminers use of such products.
Thanks Lazarus. I too am not an anti-gov person either–but this ACS crosses so many lines. One of which is the HIPPA Privacy Laws for ADA statistics and that is so blatantly wrong for technology today and in the future.
Due to fact that another ACS – FOIA site: Survivalarts.com–that had a nice collection of complaints collected–is mysteriously off-line now for who knows how long. I suggest folks might want to at least copy the info that they would like to reference again from this site on to a separate document. Just in case its not a coincidence–I reserve the right to blame all temporary-paranoia on the ACS!
=-D
I also recommend writing to any of your Congressional Reps serving on the
Oversite and Government Reform Committee.
Remember the VA Hospital scandel that would be fixed? Well the 2009 submitted Pres-Budget cut their funding by $20 Billion…I used that slight of hand to set the stage for this one and is harder hitting.
XXXX 25, 2008
The Honorable XXXXX XXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Re: Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
Washington, DC xxxxx-xxxx
Dear Representative XXXXXX:
I would rather see us supporting our Veterans with $20 billion from 2009 – 2013, than what will soon be $20 billion on the Census Bureau’s re-engineering project. When a project has everything but the kitchen-sink, typically costs continue to escalate with no justifiable documentation or decision path explanations. Though, it is vital that the 2010 Decennial not have the errors of 1990 and 2000, as we are in need of a General Election without a hint of suspicion.
Your role on the Committee on Oversight and Reform is critical. Please keep your watchful eye on this Project. Why?
1) In preliminary re-engineering statements, the Census Bureau argued operational efficiencies will make a short form with the continuous measure ACS a less expensive option than a mixed long-and-short-form traditional. At this point, there are enough ACS results to do an actual apples-to-apples cost comparison with inflationary adjustments—have they produced that yet? My guess is that we’re spending more with minimal benefits.
The human factor of the American Public has been lost to yet another statistical measure labeled as “hard to interview” totally disregarding the Bureau’s failed approach. Many of the ACS questions are considered unanswerable and intrusive. For instance, the 2007 questions of physical, mental or emotional health collide with HIPAA privacy laws while trying to achieve ADA measurements. I have to ask—has the Secretary and Census Director been given too much leeway?
2) The follow-up calls with the Census Bureau’s new Cisco ARS-PG virtual phone queuing system can easily be misconstrued as surveillance wiretapping. I personally don’t think a system that parks on a direct line should be used outside of a contained business-partner environment. Add to that the many online personal experiences of Census Enrollers seemingly stalking their victims–how did we get to this point? Can tacticians get honest “qualified” data with this obtrusive pressurized sales approach? And how will those people respond to a hand-held wireless computer carrying Census Enroller for 2010? It does not look promising for the next administration.
The Statistical Policy Report on Disclosure was updated in 2005 with Confidentiality and Data Access. In Chapter V it discusses confidentiality issues of our synthesized personally identifiable information into microdata. It glibly concludes that there is “no way” to eliminate disclosure risk of confidential information, even with appropriate masking. On page 98 it states: “Any disclosure of confidential data on microdata files may constitute a violation of the law or of an agency’s policy…” Then consider the near future: There are doctoral thesis papers available online discussing the risk of re-identification with both Medical DNA and Biomedical Genomic-familial database technology stating that the potential exists for serious privacy violations.
3) It does not take a doctoral degree in Marketing to know that all those Dataminers are supported by the Census Bureau’s MAF-TIGER data and the USPS delivery sequence address data to sell our Personal Privacy to unknown potential Identity Thieves—let alone the mountains of unwanted junk mailers.
In fact, the Dataminers harbor their rights to our Personal Identifiable Information on a forever Identity Theft risk basis. Have you ever tried to get off of one of their lists? Several of my dead relatives remain on their list even after providing death information, so it is never updated. Death will not get a name removed; meanwhile Eternity now has . . . a whole new meaning.
[ share your personal experience with the ACS here.]
So while at the FTC they tell the American Public how to keep from becoming a statistic on the Identity Theft list, at the Department of Commerce they fail to protect the Data with our Personal Identifiable Information. Though it’s the Databrokers that use the Census Bureau information, the Bureau is knowingly aware of re-identification technology and I believe is already in violation of the law and Agency policy by blatantly exposing our confidential information on microdata files. Representative XXXXXX, I wonder if there is anyone guarding the gate beyond the one that says Executive Privilege?
That is why I’d like to see the soon to be $20 Billion at the Census Bureau be reallocated and put into taking care of something we can put our arms around – our Veterans – rather than an out of control re-engineering project that puts all of our Personal Privacy and Identities at risk.
[ a personalized thank you for their support would be good here.]
Respectfully,
Name
Street Address
Town and Zip
Email
Tele:
Very well worded. The very basic defenses that we are advised to use to protect ourselves from identity theft are in direct conflict with the ACS questions.
Let me be clear, I am not an anti-government person. But the Survey really does put a person more at risk if you answer the questions, than if you do not.