By Evan Armstrong
Community Engagement VISTA

How far would you go to protect confidential information at your job? In 1980, four agents from the FBI entered the Census Bureau’s office in Colorado Springs, armed with a search warrant authorizing them to seize census documents. While FBI agents and a search warrant would normally trump any instructions you may have at your workplace, a local census worker knew that the law states that all census information is absolutely confidential – including to the FBI, CIA, IRS, law enforcement, etc. This worker refused to allow the FBI access to census documents, and successfully held the agents off until the situation was resolved with her superiors. This is just one example of the commitment census workers have to their positions.

All answers you give while filling out your census form are strictly confidential, and protected under the law (U.S. Code, Title 13, Section 9). The sharing of individual information is prohibited, and no court, or even the President, can access your responses.

Census information remains confidential for 72 years. That means that individual information provided this year will not be available until 2082! Many Americans have used released data from censuses from 1930 or earlier to trace lost lines of their genealogy, filling in important gaps in their family history.

Census workers pass intense background checks. They are trained to fully respect individual privacy, the commitment the Census Bureau has to non-disclosure, and are sworn for life to keep this information private. Census Bureau employees are eligible for a $250,000 fine and/or 5 years in prison for revealing identifiable information about an individual or household.

So remember, information provided for the census can only help you. The census is safe and easy – the ten questions on the questionnaire do not ask for social security numbers, immigration status, or yearly income. The census is about taking a snapshot of America, allowing federal and state governments to fairly distribute resources where they are needed. The census questionnaires are mailed out in March, so get ready to participate and do your part to make the 2010 Census the most complete picture yet!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Census 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.