The New Census: An All-Out Assault On Your Privacy

The New Census: An All-Out Assault On Your Privacy

Jarret Wollstein / Towards Liberty | September 1 2006

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 report on the
activities of relatives, employers and roommates. Joseph Stalin could
hardly ask for more surveillance powers. You can download the survey
at http://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