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”
I like your letter too Lazarus. I’ve been busy myself after the ACS attack and did some research and tied the ACS to Data Protection and Identity Theft issues.
Here’s my letter that can be used and adapted by anyone prior to the end of this 110th Congressional Session. Find your representatives addresses at Senate.gov and House.gov;
As a sidenote, I do disagree with the GAO on the issue of the ACS being legally mandatory…but they point out so many other flaws in the system that they are still a good source for a starting point.
—————
XXXXXXXX 7, 2008
The Honorable XXXXXX X. XXXXXX
United States Senator—(State) or (State) ## District ## XXXX House Office Bldg.
XXX Hart Senate Bldg. or XXX
Washington, DC 20510-1501 or Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senator or Representative xxxxxxxx:
[quote…news article…comment…or something about their support to help with Data Protection.]
The Feb. 2008 Economic Report of the President states that both: 2002 CIPSEA and FISMA Acts are effectively being implemented in regard to Data Protection. This contradicts the January GAO report: see GAO-08-343. I am concerned about how the rush to push Data Sharing to Improve Statistics in Chapter 8 would further degenerate the already improper handling of our Personal Identification Information.
Please do all you can to see the following legislation gets signed into law during this 110th Congressional Session. It is embarrassing that we need to have legislation to ensure our Government Protects our Data—but it must be done.
1) H.R. 4791. This Federal Agency Data Protection Act further amends 44 U.S.C. and satisfies most of the identified flaws by expert critics that remain in the 2002 CIPSEA and FISMA Acts. Though, I think the definition of Personally Identified Information needs to be the same as:
18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(7). See GAO historical specifics on the breaches in GAO-08-496T.
2) S 495. This Personal Data Privacy and Security Act covers Government Agencies as well as Commercial entities, most importantly the Dataminers with reasonable responsibility and accountability measures.
Why do I bring these issues up? It dovetails as the crux of the real concerns about the coveted American Community Survey (ACS). There is a growing non-partisan groundswell of discontent that a simple Web-search will uncover. I know this is a vital organ for Federal Funding, but the Bureau’s approach with this tool is wrong on so many levels, it will no doubt affect the upcoming 2010 Decennial Census response rates. See: GAO 08-259T.
Sincerely,
name
address
city state zip
tele:
email:
To Rational Jenn, of course you may post my letter on your blog. [email protected] is my e-mail address if need that.
Got my second copy of the survey in the mail on Saturday 3-22. Still amazed that they are bold enough to ask for this information! I’m kind of out in the boondocks so I doubt if they will try for a personal visit. If they show up I will use my camera on the cell phone to take a picture of their ID, license plate and them before telling them, nicely, that they must leave. They have no law enforcement capabilty. It’s a bully bluff.
We received our first personal visit yesterday (click on my blog link if you want to read it). We refused to answer ANY questions, not even the head count, since this is not a census year.
To all of you who are fighting this–stay strong! We are doing the right thing!
Lazarus–I’ve seen the text of your letter on several websites now and I just love it! Would you be willing to put it in a comment on my blog, or allow me to post it on my blog? I want to give you credit for it, so I will not do it unless you let me know in some way. Hopefully, you are watching these comments.
I live in Northern Oregon and have just begun the 90 day cycle. Intitial notification, then survey. I started to fill it out but then said NO WAY and burned it. The return envelope did not seem to have trackable info on it so I put this letter in it and sent it back:
Director
US Census Bureau
PO Box 5240
Jeffersonville, IN 47199-5240
I have received your American Community Survey and I must say that it appears at first to be a classic example of Phishing for information to be used in Identity Theft. The only thing missing is a Nigerian postmark. But I understand that this is an actual request from our government!
I am a responsible citizen and willing to help the Census Bureau with the information it needs to make informed decisions. However, your survey is quite intrusive into specific information that should not be needed. And I cannot risk providing. My obligations are to protect my family first, and to be a good citizen second.
You need to know how many persons are living in a household. I understand that. But you require the first name, last name, and middle initial of each person living there. This cannot be needed for census information.
You need to know the age of each person, I understand that. But you require the actual birth dates of each person. This cannot be needed for census information.
You need to know if each person is employed, I understand that. But you require that we provide the name and address of our employers. This cannot be needed for census information.
You need to know certain information about commuting habits, I understand. But you ask what time each person leaves the house. This cannot be needed for census information. This would be great information for thieves to have.
You also ask for a great deal of financial information. We provide this info each year to the IRS.
By cross-referencing this data you can create an almost complete identity profile. The only thing missing is the Social Security Number. But you probably ask for that in the follow up phone calls because you also require a phone number to contact.
Other unscrupulous persons, not associated with the Survey could just call asking for this information to complete the survey. It is a given that they will. Because people, especially the old, trust the good will of the government. This survey is putting many people at risk.
Please don’t try to assure me how safe this information is in your hands. I am not impressed with the security skills of the public sector. Every act that creates something like the American Community Survey also contains provisions by which you are absolved of all responsibility for failure to protect this information. I have to provide the info, you don’t have to protect it.
Only a very naive person would fill out this survey with all the risk associated with the need to protect personal security.
Please don’t tell me that I will be fined for failure to participate. I doubt that you can really prosecute a person for an attempt to protect themselves. My reasons for withholding the information are valid. I am not convinced that your need for specific data is.
After I print this I will be forwarding it to both my congress man/woman and my state representative.
Yours skeptically,
Well, you already know. (end of letter sent)
And then I sent it to my representatives. No response yet. My family has been instructed not to provide any info in person or by phone to anyone from the Survey. Assuming they have the phone numer for this address, it is simply an answering machine as we all have cells. If a CB rep shows up in person, they will be asked for identification and then told to leave. And I’ve got the local cops on speed dial if they don’t. The cops can come to your home without permision but everyone else has to leave when you tell them. The census people are not allowed to stay after being told to leave. Wish me luck for the next 2 months.
Hi All,
We got the survey and subsequent mails in January and the string of phone calls in February, until I finally confronted one of the phone callers with my concerns. Here’s what I got out of it:
You don’t have to answer any questions you don’t like – but don’t leave it blank, or they’ll call back to see if you missed it. Instead put in an “R” for
“refuse to answer”
You don’t have to use your real name – but again don’t leave it blank. Instead put in “Lady of the house” or “Gentleman of the house” or even “Person1” or “Person 2” etc. Per the caller, some people even use pseudonyms such as “mickey mouse” and “daffy duck”!
My gut feel: they can’t force you to answer any questions, but they don’t tell you that in advance in order to get the most information out of you. It’s a strategy that works with many naive citizens!
I got the survey in December and immediately decided I was not going to answer it. Most of the info is available in one computer or another,so if they need it let them find it. I put my name and reported that there were two people in my household and mailed it back to them. About two weeks later I got a call asking about the survey. I said that I had mailed it back and the lady calling claimed they didn’t get it. She said that she would send me another. I got it a bout a week later and threw it away. I started getting daily messages on my answering machine to call them. I answered the phone on a Saturday night at 9:30 pm thinking it was someone I knew and it was the damn people about the survey. I hung up. They continued to leave messages daily and sometimes again in the evening. I never answered. They have finally stopped. No one ever came to the door or let anything. I have expressed my concerns about this extremely intrusive and unnecessary attempt to invade my life to my congressman and both senators.
I received my ACS last Friday and the CB was thoughtful enough to send me a reminder card two days ago. Completing this pernicious survey is SO not going to happen. There’s quite a lenthy thread about the ACS on the Survival Arts web site.
If you receive this survey and decide in your heart of hearts that the info requested is too personal, too over the top (my view) you can certainly refuse to comply. The last time the CB had anyone fined was 1960, their threats to fine people who refuse to fill out the survey are smoke. The 90 day harassment cycle is their best shot: 30 days of mail contact, 30 days of phone calls and 30 days of field rep visits.
To me, that’s a small price to pay for refusing to cough up very personal data to a nanny government run amock. It troubles me to have to refuse to comply because I believe citizens do have obligations to their government and their community: voting, serving on juries, paying one’s tax obligation, being law-abiding. Unfortunately, this intrusive survey that my government proudly markets as a “data product” breaks the compact. I cannot and will not comply.
Well about 3 weeks ago I got “The American Community Survey” and I did not think much of it. I actually began filling it out, thought it was a bit intrusive but the further I went, the more outraged I became. The questions being ask can have no value to if we need more schools in my community, why is that the business of the federal government anyhow, some of it is simply an outright intrusion into our private lives. If it is truly a random survey why do we have to respond giving names and birthplaces? I can easly come up with a survey system that would truly pull addresses at random, forward the survey to a household in a neighborhood, retreive the answers and have them returned idendified only by a voter district or typical house. What is with all the detail about the individual?
To those who feel they have nothing to hide, well if they would please forward me their SSN, Name, home address and home phone number, I will be sure to pass it along to folks who might have use of that information. Remember, “freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”
I am a Vietnam Vet and have worked for 35 years diligently to make a home for myself and family. I am a patriot and I pay my taxes on all my income without cheeting, will not short change a commerical enterprize and believe most everyone has at least one good thing about them which gives them some intrinsic value. But this survey just is not getting it! I find it interesting that it is aganist the law for the IRS(a federal agency) to share their information with the US Census Bureau(a federal agency) but it is unlawful for me, a private citizen, not to share this information with them? I guess the folks at the IRS or whoever structured the rules about the IRS’ code were smarter than those who allowed the CB to stick their nose into our private business. Has the ACLU taken a position on this survey?
Lo Wa,
The point here is that some people actually value their privacy. If you don’t, that’s fine. Yes, thers’s alot of info out there already, but it’s not all packaged up in a tidy questionaire. What little I have that is still private will remain private. I don’t appreciate the government using its power to bully citizens into supplying private info so the behavioral and social scientists have material to analyze and study.
What I see here is a bunch of paranoid individuals! What do you really think is “private” about your live anymore? If you use ATM or credit cards, financial institutions have more information than you care to have people know. If you use “preferred Customer” cards in the grocery store, they even know how much junk food you buy every trip to the store. Red Light Cameras at intersections, will catch you trying to sneak thru an intersection and give you a ticket by way of United States mail, and how can you be sure what that bar code the Postal Service puts in your mail really means.
I’ve seen the survey, and nothing there seems all that personal to me, unless you have 15 people in your household, or your mortgage payment is $3,000 a month, and you only make $20,000 a year. But then again, some of us have nothing to hide, so we aren’t upset by questions that have a reason.