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Monday, March 04, 2013

Census anon


Why do they want your full name and DOB for the census? They used to say it was to identify who to contact if there was a problem with the forms or to collect them. Bullshit. Now they say it's so that people can leave their forms in the arcnives for geneologists and family in the future. Bullshit. The reason they seek unnecessary and irrelevant personal information is to data-match, to use the data to find and assess individuals. It was this mis-use described in Michael King's biography on 'Princess' Te Puea Herangi during WW1 Waikato Tainui resisted the conscription and so the NZ government and the NZ Police unlawfully used the census information to track the resisters down. Nothing has really changed. The NZ government and their agencies cannot be trusted with this information. They are opportunistic and prefer to break the law and get a validating order afterwards than to follow the rule of law.




The question is: to boycott the census entirely, or to boycott the personal parts of the form. I suggest the latter. Yes, it is still giving agencies - and others purchasing the data commercially or accessing it by legislative right - too much info that could lead to possible identification; but not returning a form and not counting altogether will have adverse outcomest through the cumulative effect of undercounting. Mr An On, b.00/00/197- ought to be sufficient.



5 Comments:

At 4/3/13 3:30 pm, Blogger Barnsley Bill said...

I am surprised that this even needs saying. Who would be daft enough to give their real name on a census form?
One disappointment with this round of data mining. we have not seen a campaign to get people to declare their religion as Jedi this time.

 
At 4/3/13 5:29 pm, Blogger MPledger said...

As a person who uses the data in health research can I ask that you put your year of birth in e.g. 1978.

The year groups are important when we are trying to compare between groups e.g. between the young Maori population and the older Pakeha population; and with international comparisons.

The day and month aren't important.

It especially important around the disability questions - are we having young people get chronic conditions at a younger age? Do we need to plan for it?

 
At 4/3/13 6:45 pm, Blogger Nitrium said...

I suspect (perhaps naively) you are being a bit paranoid (and I hardly ever take off my tin foil hat). We're not the USA yet.

 
At 5/3/13 11:24 am, Blogger Unknown said...

I use N.O.Y.B (none of your business) on all questions I think are too far reaching, irrelevant or personal. So I wont be doing it online as this is not an option. I have done it before and got hassled by the census organisers but it came to nothing.
I know what the Nazis did with census info also

 
At 5/3/13 9:35 pm, Blogger Hypatia said...

I filled mine out - correct name and address but answered with lies. Now I feel like ripping it up and starting again .. with ALL lies this time , i'm fucked if I know why I trusted the bit about privacy ...a moment of madness maybe

 

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