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What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

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Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#21

Post by lonelappde »

droithomme wrote: post #4

I got randomly selected for the long one in 2010. There were several questions I was not able to answer but providing incorrect information is a crime and not answering is a crime. So I did nothing. They sent one or two threatening follow ups. Then an in-person enumerator showed up and ran me through the short-form questions only, which was fine.

Politifact couldn't find evidence of prosecution for lying or refusing since 1970.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/jan/09/us-census-...

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#22

Post by oceanghost »

droithomme wrote: post #4

I got randomly selected for the long one in 2010. There were several questions I was not able to answer but providing incorrect information is a crime and not answering is a crime. So I did nothing. They sent one or two threatening follow ups. Then an in-person enumerator showed up and ran me through the short-form questions only, which was fine.

I had the same thing happen. I sat down to do the long-form and it asked fairly invasive questions like what chronic diseases I had, and IIRC even how many sexual partners I'd had.

I pitched the thing, but they came to the door several times until I did the short-form.

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#24

Post by omgwtfbyobbq »

droithomme wrote: post #4

I got randomly selected for the long one in 2010. There were several questions I was not able to answer but providing incorrect information is a crime and not answering is a crime. So I did nothing. They sent one or two threatening follow ups. Then an in-person enumerator showed up and ran me through the short-form questions only, which was fine.

It may be technically illegal, but when I worked for the 2010 Census we were told that it's fine if someone doesn't want to answer a question, and that's what I told people when I interviewed them.

According to this article, no census failures have been prosecuted since 1970.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/381254-answering-the...

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#25

Post by dawnerd »

crooked-v wrote: post #8
downerending wrote: post #2

tldr: nothing (Can confirm, was Census enumerator. You probably will get an in-person attempt from a very-low-paid enumerator, though.)

The pay is actually pretty decent, and is cost-of-living adjusted. In Portland where I live, for example, it's $18/hour, which is way better than some temp jobs I've had.

So in theory, I should hold off on answering so someone gets paid to come to my house?

Do they have a quota to hit, like if I take my time with them do they get punished?

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#26

Post by lsiebert »

This is worth quoting here IMHO:

"However, even if you don't get fined for not filling out the census form, there are some good reasons you should do it anyway. Seats in the House of Representatives seats are apportioned by population, with the most populous states receiving the most seats. Federal and state governments rely on census data to budget for social welfare programs that assist the poor, elderly, disabled and veterans. Cities and private industry use demographic figures to plan new hospitals and housing developments, and to assess the need for new schools or new strip malls. So, not filling out the census form may cost you something in the long run."

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#27

Post by sneak »

The US federal government has an exact, real-time count and location of every single person with a phone in the country due to universal bulk surveillance.

Cross-referenced with the subscriber records from wireless, cable, and utility companies, databases from data brokers that are fed by loyalty programs and supermarkets, and every bank or credit card swipe in real-time, they already have 100% of this data in far higher resolution than will ever be collected by the census. They know about your address updates even before you tell the DMV.

I will be ignoring the effort.

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#28

Post by jasongill »

sneak wrote: post #27

The US federal government has an exact, real-time count and location of every single person with a phone in the country due to universal bulk surveillance. Cross-referenced with the subscriber records from wireless, cable, and utility companies, databases from data brokers that are fed by loyalty programs and supermarkets, and every bank or credit card swipe in real-time, they already have 100% of this data in far hi…

Citation needed

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#29

Post by sneak »

jasongill wrote: post #28
sneak wrote: post #27

The US federal government has an exact, real-time count and location of every single person with a phone in the country due to universal bulk surveillance. Cross-referenced with the subscriber records from wireless, cable, and utility companies, databases from data brokers that are fed by loyalty programs and supermarkets, and every bank or credit card swipe in real-time, they already have 100% of this data in far hi…

Citation needed

https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/14/20965354/nsa-intelligenc...

https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/26/nsa-improper-phone-records...

https://www.wired.com/2010/12/realtime/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/not-just-nsa-dat...

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#30

Post by gruez »

sneak wrote: post #29
jasongill wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation needed

https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/14/20965354/nsa-intelligenc... https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/26/nsa-improper-phone-records... https://www.wired.com/2010/12/realtime/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/not-just-nsa-dat...

>https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/14/20965354/nsa-intelligenc....

>The NSA has stopped collecting location data from US cellphones without a warrant

uh, isn't that a counter-proof?

edit:

>https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/26/nsa-improper-phone-records....

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

not exactly location data

>https://www.wired.com/2010/12/realtime/

sounds like a great way to under-count people with poor credit or access to banking

>https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/not-just-nsa-dat....

Sure, it'd probably be cheaper to buy the data off some data broker rather than doing a census yourself, but how clean is their data? Are they also going to disclose their methodologies? Is giving a few private companies the power to control government funding allocation and distribution of congressional power really a good idea?

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