U.S. Census Tracks Mail, Raising Fears Among Some

By JEAN SPENCER
Wall Street Journal
Mar. 22, 2010

Census Bureau officials are counting on an advanced postal tracking system to speed up responses and save the government millions of dollars in follow-up letters and visits by census takers.

But some privacy advocates and lawmakers are troubled by the tracking system, which they say oversteps privacy bounds.

The 2010 Census forms arrive this week at 120 million addresses across the country. Each piece of Census mail comes with a unique barcode that lets the U.S. Postal Service and the bureau track individual letters as they travel to and from the bureau. Each time a letter zips through sorting equipment—typically five times between the initial mailing and delivery—it generates data that are fed into a computer system that lets the bureau monitor its progress.

The Census Bureau can check on what letters have been delivered, residents who have changed their addresses, homes and apartments that are unoccupied and who has returned their Census form, all in real time.

The use of the so-called Intelligent Mail Barcode system added $25,000 to the 2010 Census tab, but it is estimated to save $41 million in postage and could help curb follow-up costs this spring, said Jim Dinwiddie, a member of the bureau's decennial management committee. Those costs are estimated to total $1.5 billion, based on an average cost of $57 for each home visit, he said.

The system cuts postage because it pinpoints residences that are vacant and takes them off the list for future mailings. It lowers follow-up costs by ferreting out homes where residents haven't responded; those homes get replacement forms, and the Census Bureau has found that this greatly improve response rates. In the past, the bureau sent replacement forms only if requested by a resident. Ten years ago, the Census Bureau couldn't quickly determine which households didn't fill out the forms, so it had to send a census taker to all the residences that didn't reply.

The close monitoring of the mail is giving privacy advocates and others pause. "I would certainly agree it's more invasive of people's privacy," said Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, who has opposed the Census because it goes beyond a simple headcount, asking residents 10 questions, including names, ages, race and sex. "It's the environment we live in; the government knows every single thing. It just means there is more pressure, and more likelihood, that you are going to be fined by the government." Rep. Paul was the sole "no" vote on a House resolution this month to encourage participation in the 2010 Census.

Jay Stanley, who as communications director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Technology and Liberty Program focuses on privacy rights, said Americans should be notified that their mail is being watched. "There is a lot of sensitivity with the Census in terms of privacy," he said. When people don't know their mail is being tracked, that's a privacy violation, he said.

The decennial count includes several mailings: a heads-up letter that the census form is on the way; the form itself; a postcard reminding that the form needs to be filled out and returned; and a replacement census form to homes that didn't respond.

Jim Marsden, program manager for printing and distribution with the Census Bureau, says speedier printing and the tracking system have allowed the bureau to send a mass mailing of replacement forms to households that haven't responded. Early Census Bureau tests show that homes that received replacement forms increased their mail-in response rates by 6% to 7%.

Typically, about two-thirds of U.S. residents mail back their questionnaire, but the bureau is concerned the response rate could slip because foreclosures have displaced many families, and distrust in government and privacy concerns are growing.

John Deighton, a business professor at Harvard University who specializes in direct and online marketing, said those concerns have more to do with the Census itself than any mail tracking system. "What expectation of privacy are people likely to hold when it comes to the Census, the most intrusive constitutionally authorized demand for personal information that the average citizen will ever receive?" he said.Some companies have been using Intelligent Mail since it was rolled out last May. Crain Communications Inc, a privately owned publishing company based in Detroit, ships about 1.2 million specially barcoded periodicals each week, says Joyce McGarvy, the company's vice president of distribution. The system, she said, cuts the time spent on updating the subscriber databases.

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