A letter from Charles Louis Kincannon, Director of the U.S. Census Bureau, says that my residence has been chosen at random to participate in a mid-decade census survey called the "American Community Survey."
I am generally happy to further the cause of research by answering even the most personal questions -- provided it is totally anonymous. This survey is anything but. At the top is printed my address with apartment number. The first item, first page asks for your full name and telephone number. The survey goes on to ask your age, date of birth, state of birth, race, ancestory or ethnic origin, name and address of your employer, what time you leave for work, the nature of your work, all sources and amounts of income and details about your home.
The cover letter makes it sound innocuous enough:
The survey asks you to provide information about everyone living at this residence. If there are any people staying at this address who have evacuated their homes due to Hurricane Katrina, please include them on the questionnaire. Including these people in the survey will allow the U.S. Census Bureau to more effectively measure the changing needs of communities across the country.
This survey collects critical up-to-date information used to meet the needs of communities across the United States. For example,the results of this survey are used to decide where new schools, hospitals, and fire stations are needed. This informaiton also helps communties plan for the kinds of emergency situations that might affect you and your neighbors, such as floods and other natural disasters.
The Census Bureau chose your address, not you personally, as part of a randomy selected sample. You are required by law to respond to this survey. The Census Bureau is required by law to keep your answers confidential. etc. etc. etc.
The brochure included in the packet states that We may combine your answers with information that you gave to other agencies to enhance the statistial uses of these data.
Despite assurances that only Census Bureau employees may see the data and will be fined or jailed for disclosing the information, this thing really gives me the willies.
I've annotated the cover letter and plan to enclose it with my survey, in which I refused to answer several questions. I circled the phrase "not you personally" and wrote:
Good. So you won't need personally identifiable information. Happy to provide info for statistical analysis but my government has shown itself to be profoundly untrustworthy when it comes to protecting my privacy. When we throw out the crooks/liars/traitors currently running the country, then maybe I'll regain my trust.
For name I wrote: IDONOTTRUSTYOUWITH / MYPERSONALINFO
For age I wrote >18
For place of birth I wrote: ADIFFERENTSTATE
I left blank date of birth, marital status, employer, employers address.