I thought this might be better here than THR
I've finally received my first census related document, the american community survey. In this survey I'm asked my name, sex, age, marital status, race, home size, build date, value, tax bill, mortgage status, my education level, disabilities, the name and address of my employer, what time i leave for work, how long my commute is, my job title, annual income from wages interests etc, among other questions. Along with it of course came the packets telling me explicitly how I'm obligated to complete and return it or face penalty of flogging or something and that privacy is important and my answers are confidential.
As an IT guy I can't say that I'm all that comforted by their promises to protect stuff like my income, home value, and what time I leave for work. Last year the VA lost information on 27 million veterans. Bad administrators, bad security practices, and mistakes all add up and data that should never be leaked winds up exposed. I can't help but feel like I'm being forced to give quite a bit of personal information to an entity that has shown itself to be grossly irresponsible with data.