The Census And The Right To Privacy
By gewcew23
@gewcew23 (8007)
United States
June 18, 2009 8:48am CST
Now to be honest I have not had anyone come knocking on my door just yet, so everything I will be writing about is what I have read on the web.
I have read that the census takes are asking question that concern private issues, like religion, income level and family members in the military. If this is true, then why does the Federal Government need this info? Is their not a right to privacy?
2 people like this
3 responses
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
18 Jun 09
It's not the 2010 census, which will actually be shorter this time around because they have added something called the American Community Survey. This form asks alot of personal questions and it's the law that you complete it if you receive one. Here is some information about it:
https://askacs.census.gov/cgi-bin/askacs.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=642&p_created=1093522639&p_sid=FCoa8GAj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD00MCw0MCZwX3Byb2RzPSZwX2NhdHM9JnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=&p_topview=1
1 person likes this
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
18 Jun 09
Good question. As far as I know, it's against the law because they say so...which isn't really a good enough answer for me but, then again, the entire premise for this survey bothers me. You can't randomly take a number of people living in any community and base the future needs of the entire community on the answers supplied by that sample. We have a large retiremnt population where I live in Florida but there are also young families living here, too. A random sampling of our area will not reflect the real needs of this area because the population is too diverse.
@starr4all (2863)
•
18 Jun 09
I'm torn. As a genealogist I know some of this information will be helpful to family members far into the future. But, I don't see why the gov't needs to know this information.
1 person likes this
@heathcliff (1415)
• United States
18 Jun 09
As you say, the expansion of information available on the Census is excellent for geneologists and future generations wanting to know more about us. The main objective for the Census, though, is simply to count people for districting and proper repesentation. That would make any extra questions completely unnecessary and I would argue that any "law" about answering anything other than "how many people live here" is technically unconstitutional. It should be completely voluntary.
@Destiny007 (5805)
• United States
19 Jun 09
They need this information so they know who to come for when the time is right.
That is why they are also recording the GPS location of your address.... so they know where to start looking.
