Finished the 2020 Census
Mar. 13th, 2020 08:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebJust finished the Census.
Confidentiality
"The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release your responses in a way that could identify you or your household. ... Violating the confidentiality of a respondent is a federal crime with serious penalties, including a federal prison sentence of up to five years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both." Even the lowliest Census workers (as I was for the 1990 Census) have to take very serious vows on this issue.
Logistics
I got an "invitation" in the mail with special ID code to use in filling it out online. At first I was upset about this because not everyone has a computer. But if they don't get your response within a few weeks, they send a paper one. Plus maybe I'm wrong, and most everyone does have to have a computer (smart phone) these days. Plus, if we enter our own answers, there aren't mistakes in translation and they can better deal with their too-small budget.
And I guess I can see why they send a snail mail, because they are using physical address as a way to distinguish everybody as opposed to e-mail address, phone number, or social security number, and I know they try to find homeless people, too.
Design
I liked the design of the questionnaire (at least using my laptop) except that if you don't finish the whole thing in one sitting, you have to start over. But they don't make you type in hyphens, etc.
The question on sex was quite unenlightened. You have to choose male or female as your biological sex. But the question on race and ethnicity was very well done. You can check as many things as you want and fill in blanks. They basically had everything I want except "unknown American mix." There is no question on citizenship.
Save tax dollars
Please finish your census ASAP, online if possible, to save tax dollars in sending you a paper one and then sending people to your door.
Confidentiality
"The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release your responses in a way that could identify you or your household. ... Violating the confidentiality of a respondent is a federal crime with serious penalties, including a federal prison sentence of up to five years, a fine of up to $250,000, or both." Even the lowliest Census workers (as I was for the 1990 Census) have to take very serious vows on this issue.
Logistics
I got an "invitation" in the mail with special ID code to use in filling it out online. At first I was upset about this because not everyone has a computer. But if they don't get your response within a few weeks, they send a paper one. Plus maybe I'm wrong, and most everyone does have to have a computer (smart phone) these days. Plus, if we enter our own answers, there aren't mistakes in translation and they can better deal with their too-small budget.
And I guess I can see why they send a snail mail, because they are using physical address as a way to distinguish everybody as opposed to e-mail address, phone number, or social security number, and I know they try to find homeless people, too.
Design
I liked the design of the questionnaire (at least using my laptop) except that if you don't finish the whole thing in one sitting, you have to start over. But they don't make you type in hyphens, etc.
The question on sex was quite unenlightened. You have to choose male or female as your biological sex. But the question on race and ethnicity was very well done. You can check as many things as you want and fill in blanks. They basically had everything I want except "unknown American mix." There is no question on citizenship.
Save tax dollars
Please finish your census ASAP, online if possible, to save tax dollars in sending you a paper one and then sending people to your door.