Op-Ed: The Myth of Census Data Confidentiality

The Census Bureau assures us that 'your confidentiality is protected' because Title 13 requires the Census Bureau to keep all information about you and all other respondents strictly confidential,' but those assurances are relatively useless

Despite the $350 million ad campaign for the 2010 Census urging individuals to 'tell your story,' many -- particularly minorities and illegal immigrants who are traditionally believed the be the most under counted -- will be non-compliant because of fears, some of which are over-hyped, that the information provided can reportedly be used against them. Those fears are not completely unfounded. Widespread non-compliance, particularly among those most likely to be discriminated against by a majority, may not be strictly rooted in the 'ignorance' the ads are designed to overcome. The most recent example of the U.S. government breaching census trust occurred in 2002 and 2003, when the Census Bureau handed over information that had been collected about Arab-Americans to Homeland Security. In 1943, data from the 1940 Census was turned over to the War Department and used to intern Japanese, Italian and German Americans once the U.S. became involved in World War II. The Census data was used to monitor and persecute others who escaped internment. An unspecified threat against President Franklin Roosevelt in 1943 resulted in the Census Bureau releasing the name, address, age, sex, citizenship status and occupation of Japanese Americans in the Washington D.C. area to the Treasury Department. 140,000 Workers Hired to Collect GPS Readings for Every Front Door in the Nation The full scope of personal information released during World War II only recently came to light. As noted by the Independent Institute, there may well be other instances of such data sharing of which we remain unaware. The Census Bureau assures us that 'your confidentiality is protected' because Title 13 requires the Census Bureau to keep all information about you and all other respondents strictly confidential.' Those assurances are relatively useless. The release of the 'strictly confidential' data was also perfectly legal during World War II under the terms of the Second War Powers Act of 1942 and would be legal -- depending on your definition of legal - under the USA PATRIOT Act that was recently, and quietly, extended by the Obama administration. According to the Independent Institute, 140,000 workers were hired to collect GPS readings for every front door in the nation in preparation for this year's Census. That type of pinpoint precision certainly simplifies locating any individual or group that may be identified as a threat to 'national security' in the future. Sound far fetched? It's not. There was a 1976 Senate Report which slated 26,000 Americans for being rounded up by the FBI in the event of a national emergency at the height of the cold war. Since the U.S. Government's Terrorist Watch list holds over one million names, the acquired GPS data would be instrumental in accomplishing that type of roundup. Flagrant Data-Mining of Census Data and Air Passenger Records More importantly, the census data is also shared more than originally advertised. Stanford University has joined UC Berkeley, Duke, the University of Michigan, UCLA and others that have their own Census data center and according to the director of the new center, "the Census Bureau is very interested in making the centers more accessible to scholars who can use the data they provide." In fact, Henry Brady, the dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley -- and principal investigator for the California Census Research Data Centers -- told the Independent Institute "we're trying to make centers where lots of federal agencies will let us use their data." What possible harm could come from that? If history, and the government's track record with America's civil liberties and privacy are any indication, quite a bit. In January of 2004 it was reported that the data of close to a half million Northwest Airline passengers from the 1990 Census was used by the U.S. government in a test of a CAPPS II-like program. A paper titled "Near Linear Time Detection of Distance-Based Outliers and Applications to Security" was presented on May 3, 2003 at the Workshop on Data Mining for Counter Terrorism and Security in San Francisco. That paper, coupled with recently obtained documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) relating to Northwest Airlines' collaboration with NASA CAPPS II testing revealed flagrant data-mining that was involved with the misuse of U.S. Census data and air passenger records. Stephen Bay and Mark Schwabacher, the authors of the paper, used the full Passenger Name Records (PNRs) of 439,381 Northwest passengers and detailed definable, individual, and household data from the 1990 Census attempting to find 'outliers' - people that allegedly do not conform to predetermined norms and could therefore be considered a 'threat.' Passenger data from Northwest Airline was turned over by the airline without knowledge or permission of the passengers and given to NASA's Ames Research Center. The 'research' was conducted for the Center by Bay and Schwabacher. U.S. Government Used Census Data to Illegally Spy on Americans Bay was working as a research scientist at the Institute for the Study of Learning and Expertise -- an organization that has received substantial funding from DARPA, the 'defense' group that is responsible for the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program. Schwabacher was working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) -- an agency with extensive ties to the Department of Homeland Security. The government's use of census data to single-out and profile American citizens is outrageous and dangerous. More information on the 'research' can be found from Source Watch. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. government was using Census data to illegally spy on American citizens. The illegal data-mining and spying on American citizens -- as well as the racial profiling -- has continued to this day and the TIA program is still being illegally used by the FBI. Despite reassurances that data is held under the strictest security and used for government programs and solutions to our problems, do we, as noted by the Independent Institute, really want academics to social engineer policy solutions based on sensitive personal data? Their 'solutions' may be no more desirable than the 'solutions' provided by government programs like internment and renditioning, and without the protections afforded by a right to privacy, there is little chance of escaping a political will to enforce discriminatory policies. More information on the Census and privacy can be found from the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The government has tried to make sure you participate in the Census. Choosing privacy instead of participating in the Census can cost anyone over 18-years-old $100 to $5,000. People are required by law to cooperate in a head count for political representation purposes. Some say that according to Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, the only information the government is empowered to request is the total number of occupants at a given address. Not being a Constitutional lawyer, I have no idea, but the fact remains that U.S. Census data confidentiality is a myth. More information (PDF) on the 2010 Census can be found from the U.S. Census Bureau.