FT. LAUDERDALE – Your answers are protected by law (Title 13 of the U.S. Code, Section 9) and are strictly confidential. It is illegal for the Census Bureau, or its employees, to share your personal information with any other government agency — not law enforcement, IRS, Welfare, FBI, Immigration, etc.
No court of law, not even the President of the United States, can access your individual responses. In 1953, during the Truman administration, the White House had to undergo renovation. It was necessary to relocate the President until the renovation was completed.
The Secret Service requested from the Census Bureau information on residents living in the proposed relocation area for the purpose of performing background checks. However, because census data are ABSOLUTELY CONFIDENTIAL, even to the President, the request was denied.
Census workers must pass security and employment reference checks and are highly motivated to protect your answers. All Census Bureau employees are subject to a $250,000 FINE AND/OR A FIVE-YEAR PRISON TERM for disclosing any information that could identify a respondent or household. In 1980, armed with a search warrant authorizing them to seize census documents, four FBI agents entered the Census Bureau’s Colorado Springs office. No confidential information was ever released because a census worker held off the agents until her superiors resolved the issue with the FBI.
The census is coming – April 1, 2010
