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.
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718 responses to “American Community Survey”
Latest update: All has been quiet for 5 days now – no visits or mailings. (Didn’t put phone # on short form, so never got any calls.) Dare we hope that we’ve seen the last of them?
B, BINGO!!!!! The only reason this program goes on is because the gov runs it and has unlimited access to our money to pay for it. As far as the gov having any ability to keep things private…… I give you Wikileaks! The gov only promises to keep the “entire” profile confidential. Which is not the same thing as “private”. The gov has the power to release pieces parts of the survey, independent of the whole. This info is released all the time. There is nothing like seeing a marketing website with incomes listed down to the zipcode or block level. The gov “shares” the survey info to selected groups to study the info. These people are subject to the same fines as the CB employees which is supposed to protect us from an intentional release of info. It doesn’t protect us from an “accidental” info release, which happened when the actual survey info from many residences was posted on the internet.
Thought I’d leave another latest update to the confrontation with the CB agent Ron Slattery. After me telling him I refuse to answer the ACS he left.
Well, yesterday I get another Fedex overnight waste of money from the CB. They basically sent more pamphlets and a form letter where they just plug in the name of the agent that visited/harrased me. The problem is, they had the wrong agents name in the letter. ……..So let me get this straight, you want me to divulge very initmate personal and financial records on a form and give it over to the government and trust you to keep it confidential? Meanwhile you can’t even keep accurate records of what agents have visited my house or are handling my “case”. If this was a business it would have failed years ago, the only difference is they have us taxpayers to keep sucking blood out of to keep these failed, wasteful programs funded. I’m really starting to get pissed now. I wrote my local rep but he is a lame duck so I need to write to the new guy. (not that he gives a sht either)
Stalked, you might enjoy reading the COSSA (consortium of social science associations) newsletters. This lobby group is a huge supporter of the CB, lobbies for support and submits questions for the survey. I have been reading about methods and following the data from the ACS for some time and have found lots of interesting things behind the development of this privacy invading extortion ring.
Cathy – It sounds like we share a common perspective about what social science research should reflect – an interest in understanding phenomena for what they truly are. I also do not believe in manipulating data to fit theories nor coercing people into participating. On the rare occasion, I have used summaries drawn from large population surveys, but I am not involved with developing or administering them, especially on the scale of ACS.
As I mentioned earlier, the fact that we cannot “opt-out” of the ACS upfront is disconcerting. Thankfully, there was no CB rep visit today, though we find ourselves constantly on the look-out every time we enter/leave the house.
Also, this is the first time I’ve heard of social psychologists (I am not one) being referred to as a “tribal moral community.” I need to google Dr. Haidt’s address now, out of sheer curiosity.
Feeling stalked, I feel sorry for you that you are in the social science field. If you do a google search for “stop the american community survey”, you’ll find the petition and other anti-ACS sites listed.
The oversight for the ACS is done by numerous committees and subcommittees which are made up mostly of supporters of this invasive survey. The whole structure was set up to get around the resistance to guarding privacy. At present, members of COSSA are learning how to develop methods to manipulate the public to produce desired responses. In my book, this is stealth socialism. The ACS is nothing more than approved thuggery.
File under: our lives made better by social science
These self appointed elites have decided that in their infinite wisdom, that they and only they are capable of directing this country. I submit that they have succeeded in driving this country into the dumper by creating and lobbying for policies that were based upon faulty conclusions and therefore, have directed massive amounts of money into things that never were designed to work. Hell will freeze over before I will believe that any of these elites are better at choosing things to make my life better. Their collective intelligence falls way short of ever achieving that goal.
Dr. Haidt addressed a group of social psychologists saying that social psychologists are a tribal moral community, united by scared values that hinder research and damage their credibility and results in blinding them to the hostile climate they’ve created for non liberals. 40% of the general population is conservative and 20% is liberal, while 80% of those in the social sciences are liberal. This slant causes social scientists to view any social inequality as caused almost exclusively by racism. By never considering an alternative cause to a problem, the best solution will never be implemented.
Science to me, is about studying what truly is and not manipulating and scewing data to fit a desired conclusion. When the date debunks the theory, then throw out the theory. Until the folks running the social science programs really understand and implement true scientific theory, their fields of study will remain tainted.
Got caught at home while doing some renovation work in the basement yesterday, I went outside to my friends truck to retrieve a saw and who pops up around the corner but Mr Ron Slattery himself with his electronic notepad and all. He starting in with a serious tone about this is required by law, yada yada stiff penalties up to $500 he claimed. Not the $100 or $5000 I have heard from various other folks. Anyways I told him I am in the middle of working on my house and I have workers waiting on me etc etc.
Then he said well this would only take about 10 minutes, come one it will ony take 10 mins!.. back and forth we went for about 2 minutes. Then really pissed me off by saying, “I see you have that American flag flying there on your house, you should want to help our country, this info helps figure out what roads and hospitals get built”….I alomost lost it then. Being a veteran, NRA volunteer, and I even give money to various charities that I deem needing, that was the straw that broke the camels back. I said “That flag is flying all year on my house to represent the “Republic” and it was created out of a struggle against tyranny and I feel you standing here threatening me with fines if I don’t tell you my most intimate financial, personal information is unconstitutional and you might as well mark me down as a refusal so you can go about your day and I can get back to my work”. Well he gave up and walked away and said he would mark me as refusal to answer. I said thank you sir and then he left. I could have gotten into a 20 min debate about 5th and 10th amendements but it would have been over his head and a waste of my time anyways. I wonder if they will send out another goon squad with a clipboard to try to convince me again?
We’re two weeks into the visits. I’m grateful for sites like these – they’ve helped us put into perspective the strong “legal” language on letters/brochures.
“Another harassed citizen” – can you please post the link for the petition against ACS? I’ve worked with survey data and am in the social sciences research field, yet I was still shocked at some of the personal and sensitive nature of the questions.
On research projects, you have a human subjects committee reviewing all protocols to ensure participants are protected. And language about “no coercion” must be included on a consent form, along with the option to opt-out at any time. Where’s the oversight on the ACS?! # in household – fair question. Any others about personal habits, etc. – not without an informed consent form as a WILLING participant!
Left a printed note for the CB rep – citing the Rutherford Institute and requesting to be marked as a refusal/no response. He, in turn, left a note that he will be back. What a waste of my tax dollars!
Ben, you reminded me that we’re told to save the trees, not to waste the papers, go paperless in many services, recycle (which is costly too); but seems like they can exclusively do the wasting of everything. And the postage is not cheap either. Then the gas….They should just walk.
Well the visits continue, after the note I got to call Ron Slattery on my door, I simply left it sitting on the ground between the door and the stormdoor. The next couple of days go by and then I get an overnight Fedex envelope addressed to “resident” which I left all of this paperwork in a pile in the space between the two doors. ( I have a 1 foot area between the doors. I am not opening the Fedex envelope and I am not receiving any of this crap he keeps leaving on my door. I get mad when I think of all the resources and money that goes into try to get this personal information from me. This can’t be just a simple “survey”. Otherwise common sense would tell you to try another residence on the same street. I’m sure some other sheeple would be happy to give their intimate financial records to the feds……..what a waste.