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”
cathy,
From your lips to God’s ears. Did you ever have to talk to them? Caller ID is a wonderful invention. I’m sure glad somebody thought it up.
bchbum
bchbum,
Almost done. It lasts only 90 days, getting worse as the deadline approaches. I had 2 field reps working on me, they got nothing and I had the last laugh. It has been 1 year since I received the 90 day cycle and I have heard nothing from the CB since! It does end; it does get better! Although the anger doesn’t go away.
I have a few questions I would like for you to answer. Surely, you would not mind answering questions that will better enable me to serve my community.
What time do you leave for work in the morning?
What is your birthday?
Where were you born?
What is your phone number?
How many people are in your house?
What is each of their birthdays?
Have any of them had a baby in the last 12 months?
How much money do you make?
How much is your house worth?
How many weeks did you work last year?
Do you find these questions invasive and rude?
Does it make you uncomfortable to know that our government wants to collect all this information about you?
These are questions that are included on a twenty-four page interrogation disguised as a census. It is called the American Community Survey. I am not a criminal nor do I receive government assistance. I have been informed that I must answer these questions and then mail the answers to some unknown person who will then place all of this information about me in a computer database. Failure to do this is a violation of law. This means if I choose to protect my privacy and go on living anonymously then I become a criminal. I called the telephone number on the form. I have been assured that misuse of this information may result in stiff criminal penalties. I am asking each of my representatives in government to respond with their opinion of the American Community Survey. I am also asking each of my representatives to tell the United States Census Bureau that American citizens are not willing to hand over our privacy on a platter.
We have to act now!!!
Hi,
Glad I found this site. I’m about at my wits end. Got the questionnaires the 1st month; the phone calls the 2nd month; and now phone calls and personal visits. I live in a bldg. where you have to be buzzed in. Last night the CB guy rang my bell and when I didn’t answer, he “coattailed” in with someone else. Started ringing the bell and knocking on the door (which I refused to answer). Then I hear him asking my neighbors to ask me to call him!! He gave them business cards. These people are obnoxious. I so hope this is over by the end of the month. I really, really want to hit this guy.
Thanks for letting me rant. I’ll keep checking this site for support.
bchbum
I also looked up my field reps address and that’s how I got the license plate # for both their cars. I could have gone on to collect enough info on them to fill out the ACS on them.
Instead of having an unlisted number, I have my landline listed under a phony name. After refusing the ACS, I received a postal survey addressed to that phony name. So beware of other surveys.
The CB has “target areas and target profiles”, which will receive added attention. Anyone living in areas with populations below 65,000 will get more attention since the focus has been on more populated areas. The CB is looking for hispanics, non-english speakers, disabeled, low income families and the elderly. Certain profiles will trigger additional surveys.
While the CB says that the info collected is in aggregate form it is also in profile form. Ex. – families with young children; family of 4 with 1 boy and 1 girl; high incomes with long commutes. The marrage history question was added for a group of data junkies to study that area of our lives. Another question is proposed for 09 asks those with college degrees to list majors, with a focus on science majors.
The more info the CB can extort, the longer the ACS and other surveys will get. By knowing a profile and combining it with other public info, increases the possibility of recreating the ACS answers.
No community needs the gov as a middle man for local data. Just because an idea is a good one, doesn’t mean that it should become a gov program. In fact, the way to ruin a good idea is to have the gov create a program. I don’t need the gov deciding what I need in my life.
“We have ways of making you talk!” Arte Gibson playing a Nazi on Laugh In, circa 1968.
There has been one change in tactics from ACS. After the usual phone calls to the unlisted home phone line, and several on site visits, we thought we were done. Now, they are calling both our private cell phones and our work cell phones … not sure how they got access to the latter. So it seems the personal visits are not the end, and the intrusiveness gets worse. When my wife asked how they got her cell phone number, the reply was “we have ways of gettting this information”. The irony, though, is the ACS contact came from a personal home number itself. A quick web search reveals the caller’s personal home address. If I was spiteful, I would post both … but I don’t want to fight fire with fire.
I may be out of the woods, as it has been two weeks since the 3-in-a-day visit. His marked business card is still sitting on the floor in front of my door. No mail either. That wasn’t too hard – 6-7 visits and no calls – I didn’t even have to hide. 🙂
Thanks for your support. I’ll let you know if anything else happens.
When I got the ACS survey, found this and other resistance groups immediately. Still, I pondered what to do for a while, receiving a 2nd survey (and a few reminder postcards also) late Feb. Finally, I answered with the ages of the people here but not birth dates. I wrote in huge letters “REFUSE” on everything else, or “N/A” for questions pertaining to persons beyond who live here. It’s been over 3 months, and I’ve gotten nothing at all from these bozos. No reminders, no forms, no phone calls, and no visits. I guess I’ll count myself lucky. It’s unfortunate, though. I had set up to record any phone calls or visits with the intent of putting together a presentation for youtube or something. I guess they were wise to avoid me!
The creation of the ACS was a direct result of the outrage over the longform during the 2000 census. The CB learned that Congress was not happy to hear from citizens complaining about the invasion of privacy. So, the CB decided that if the longform became the ACS, then the CB benefited by having the longform info arrive at intervals instead of all at once with the census and that it could employ more full time employees instead of the large number if temps. The data users were happy to get fresh info earlier and the CB could protect the census count from future outrage. The data users are represented by some huge lobby groups, who press congress for funding and the CB for more access to our info. While everyone will get the short form for the 2010 census, the ACS will continue every month as well. Only 1 question should be answered on the short form. The site http://www.gov/2010census/pdf/2010ACSnotebook.pdf contains the list of questions, when they were asked and why they are asked. The reasons are flimsy at best and reflect the CB belief that we are either naive, gullible or stupid enough to answer the questions.