E-mail Privacy

[Joshua_Putnam]

In <1991Jun9.073804.1969 at zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> xanthian at zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes:

> otto at fsu1.cc.fsu.edu writes:
> news at heitis1.uucp (News Administrator) writes...

>> That makes sense. The Census Bureau doesn' know
>> from privacy.

>Quite the opposite.  Up until last year, when the
>temptation to implement Big Brother methods apparently
>overcame good sense, the Census Bureau has been utterly
>fanatic about protecting the privacy of its RECORDS,
>not employees, since any hint of scandal would mean no
>more freely furnished Census Data about all the snoopy
>questions that they ask with a promise that the answers
>will remain anonymous.

Yes and no.  The individual responses are kept secret for decades.  
But the Census has long released local breakdowns detailed enough to 
be used for zoning enforcement (illegally rented spare bedrooms), 
building code violations (What do you mean someone on this street 
doesn't have indoor plumbing?  That's illegal -- we'd better condemn 
the house and make them homeless.), targeting sales campaigns, and 
finding Japanese Americans who needed to be sent to the Arizona desert 
for their own protection :-( 

The Census may be much better than some other government agencies, but 
it still goes a long way to degrade individual privacy by providing 
such a detailed starting point for those who do the actual invading.  

This may account for the trouble the Census had in obtaining freely 
furnished answers to its snoopy questions this time (such as all the 
people who wrote in "human" under "Race", and who refused to answer 
many other questions). 

In any case, this thread is veering away from the email issue, and 
probably from these groups in general.  
-- 
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