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Article posted Sep 01 2006, 11:44 PM

Category: Big Brother/Orwellian

Source: Free-market.net

THE NEW CENSUS: An All-Out Assault On Your Privacy

The federal government has quietly begun using an incredibly intrusive new census form called "The American Community Survey." Up to 1 million households a year will receive this form.

This new "census" form is 24-pages long, and demands that you lay bare every detail of your life, including how much you earn, what your home is worth, details of your health, when you leave for work, previous addresses, pregnancies, monies received from government, and on and on.

I say demand because you can be fined up to $1,000 for each of the 72 questions you don�t answer or which you answer "incorrectly." However, so far no one has been fined for not answering, nor are they likely to be if public resistance is strong.

The ways the government could use this information to harm you are mind-boggling. For instance, any financial discrepancy with IRS or Social Security records could result in your criminal prosecution. Knowing when you leave for work could enable police, acting under the Patriot Act, to secretly enter your home.

The American Community Survey also demands that you to report on the activities of relatives, employers and roommates. Joseph Stalin could hardly ask for more surveillance powers. You can download the survey at www.census.gov/acs/www/

Article I of the Constitution allows the government to conduct a count of the American people once every ten years to determine voting districts. Nothing in the Constitution gives government the power to continuously spy on the people or probe every intimate detail of their lives.

As Congressman Ron Paul observes, questions on the American Community Survey are "both ludicrous and insulting," and this information is simply none of the government's business. I fervently hope that millions of Americans will burn their forms or accidentally lose them.

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J-Bonnes

Posted: Sep 02 2006, 2:20 AM

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Write nunya (none your damn business) across the census form and send it in. They can't fine the people they impoverish. Say no to national ID cards. Say no to forced vaccinations of children and adults. Repeal the unpatriot act 1 and 2 and get the bushs out of office. No more Clintons or Kerrys or Bushes and use a write in ballot with a receipt for your records. No more professional politicians elect grassroot individuals who genuinely care about the issues and no dibold electronic voting machines. No new world order and last but not least close the borders to all immigration until an appointment only process is in place to allow the legal flow of immigrants that can be monitored by americans not americans being monitored by government..

Anonymous

Posted: Sep 05 2006, 12:29 AM

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67103

Please cite statue where the 1 grand per question fine can be imposed. I received one of these surveys, after looking up the statute, and the determined that fine, which as I read it was $100 for refusal to answer and $500 for willful misinformation for the *whole* survey. The questions were definitely none of the government's business, but when the very persistant census lady finally caught up with me and I told her that I prefered paying the 100 dollar fine to answering the questions, she was very accomodating in sugesting that I simply not answer any of the questions I didn't want to answer. So I took her up on that and answered only about 50% of the questions.

The form does state that the law requires that you completly answer the questions, but I think that if they wanted to really scare folks into performing this they would have mentioned the huge potential for fines. Not that I don't agree this form is largely BS (some of the questions did seem like basic civic service type info as opposed to privacy invasion), but I do think that we should be more careful about hyperbole regarding the stronf arm tactics being used. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Anonymous

Posted: Dec 03 2006, 8:13 PM

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12175

We got one of those forms and I thought the law said that you only had to tell them how many people lived there so I blew it off. Then we started to get phone calls asking why we hadnt returned it. After about six weeks I still hadnt returned it so they kept calling and sent me another one. So I did the mature thing i filled it out in crayon (figuring govt intelligence was a contradiction) and verry messy

Litheinil

Posted: Jul 11 2007, 10:27 PM

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71235

I got one just the other day. I thought the census was in 2000? Why am I getting this thing in 2007?

David

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 3:11 AM

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71104

What you aren't told in this article is that anything at all that is filled out in the survey is confidential and that if the information is used in any way besides making statistics that are not personally identifiable, the person who missused the information and the person who was in charge of keeping your personal information confidential (these people are assigned based on addresses, not names) have a mandatory minimum jailtime sentence of 25 years.

and there are ongoing censuses all the time. it is with the censuses that we know what the unemployment rate is or the birth rate or about the amount of violent crimes that aren't reported to the police etc.

I know someone who works for the census bureau and that person told me that an interviewee was selling heroine during the interview but due to the confidentiality that person could not get in trouble. even illegal aliens can't get in trouble for admitting their illegal status in an interview, first because the cases are set up so they can't be traced back to an individual, and second because the purpose of the statistics is to direct social programs not to undermine our constitution.

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 3:12 AM

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7162

I think I have received this, I tossed it since I knew the census was in 2000 and i didn't hear about another one.

Presumed it was junk. OH WELL.

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 4:14 AM

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66116

I got one a while back... and then they kept calling me and calling me.... just happened to be during a time of family crisis...

Then they started calling again, and said they sent it twice... I said I hadn't gotten it... they said I could be fined... and I said "Did you send it registered? Prove I received it..."

I finally filled it out and sent it in... it's was insane.... and Ron Paul is right... burn it if you get it.... it's a total invasion of your privacy.....

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 4:30 AM

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7162

I never filled mine out. Got a few copies late last year. Until I read this I just though (ala Occams Razor) that it was a phishing scam or something similar. Since I only have a cell phone i never got any calls.

I wonder if i should be waiting for the $72k fine now?

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 6:00 AM

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69230

The fine is $100 to $5000

Here is the link to the site:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/SBasics/What/What1.htm

Sample form is here:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/SQuest08.pdf

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 6:09 AM

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68209

This "article" is misleading. The author has either failed to do research or must simply be lying. David is on the money in his comment. Lots of folks think the census is an invasion of privacy. I think so. However, the idea that the government uses the info it gets from the census in a personally identifiable way to enforce any law is just not the case. Use google.

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 9:26 AM

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209208

@David and others who thing this type of thing is ok
So you say they cant use it for anything illegal? Because the government wouldnt do that of course! The government never does anything against the law. You know like torture? Or lying about a certain country having WMD? Well I guess we are all safe know since David says so. Thanks David!

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 10:41 AM

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216171

Do not question the Staatssicherheit. To question the Stasi is treason.

Sorry for introducing Godwin's law, but when is enough enough?

On the note of memes: Vote for Ron Paul

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 10:54 AM

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76174

IF ONE SHOWS UP IN MY MAILBOX I WILL USE IT FOR TOILET PAPER.

NinjaMidget

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 10:58 AM

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6433

The actual legal code is located here:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=browse_usc&docid=Cite:+13USC221

You'll notice that the fine cannot exceed $100, unless you are specifically (and willfully) answering a question incorrectly. See: Providing information that is false; instead of refusing to answer the question. I hope Digg people actually read the full comments to this article instead of the over-the-top exaggeration in this article.

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 12:15 PM

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192154

I love the argument that because it is illegal for the government to use this information, it means they won�t do it. Last time I checked we were down a few constitutional amendments with this administration's "Patriot Act". Sorry but if they have no regard for the Bill Of Rights, I am not holding my breath that they won�t misuse this info if it is convenient for them.

Bentley Ptythylhlyl

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 12:25 PM

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12989

Entreprenurial bureaucrats want to pimp your marketing data to advertising companies who pay less postage than you and get more welfare than the poorest private citizens. They think they're doing the government's "business" but they're just handing over the data to the secret police listening in on NSA communications intercepts. Private citizens are second-class citizens compared to corporations, which have all the rights of private individuals but more power of the purse. The government profits through a monopoly on privacy, the most valuable "trade secret" in the information economy. Your stats are gold; it doesn't matter that all the junk mail you get is thrown right into the trash, what matters is simply that it is sent.

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 12:34 PM

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71160

Does the law say anything about the condition the census form has to be in when you send it in? If not, I say fill it out, then burn the damn thing, stir the ashes in cat shit, and mail it back to the bastards.

WeirdDogLady

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 1:45 PM

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83233

Just don't answer. That's what I did for the last census and nothing at all happened. Repeat. Nothing at all happened.

Joe

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 1:54 PM

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204108

Its only an invasion of privacy if you are forced to give up the information or the information is taken from you. If you give up the information on an optional supplement to the survey its not an invasion of privacy.

Anonymous

Posted: Jan 07 2008, 2:03 PM

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71170

I got one refused to fill it out and told them repeatly to send me the fine and I would pay it. Kept getting phone calls then someone show up on my doorsteps to "help me" fill it out and I said send me the fine then kept getting letters from supervisors on how important it was to fill out and then higher up supervisors showed up on my doorsteps and I said send me the fine. Every single time they would ask the preprogrammed question "What do you object to?" and I always answered the same I object to my tax money being wasted and I object to people who can't accept that the answer is no.

Got very heated many times when people showed up. Totally waste of money.

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