The propaganda from the Office for National Statistics claims, falsely, that you must fill in your Census Form, so that the Government can "plan" the doling out of taxpayers' money for new hospitals or schools etc. The last 2001 Census and the mismanagement of public finances thereafter by the then Labour government, proves that this is claim is simply untrue.
However, in a time of budget cuts, due to the financial disaster caused by Gordon Brown and his Labour party colleagues, it is more likely that Census Information will be used to "justify" cuts in in budgets and services by the current Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition government.
Anybody who believes that, for example, answering Question 13 "How is your health in general", will somehow magically lead to an increase in funding for their local National Health Service is utterly wrong.
It is was technically illegal to complete your Census Form and send it by post or via the internet, before Sunday 27th March 2011, despite the Office for National Statistics propaganda.
This year's Census, unlike previous ones, no longer has absolute legal protection from the demands by other Government departments and agencies (including foreign government agencies) for the Sensitive personal Data which the Census Form requires.
See previous Spy Blog articles e.g. Indy Letters page - Glen Watson confirms lack of Census 2011 confidentiality legal powers
It is not that the Office for National Statistics will willingly compromise your individual privacy and security, they no longer have any legal powers to prevent individual or mass database trawling and copying by other Government agencies.
It is actually the British government which is more of a threat to your personal privacy and security, than the involvement of Lockheed Martin, the US defense contractor, a division of which is the prime contractor in this year's Census (they also did the 2001 Census).
Why make it easier for them to put your privacy and security at risk ?
Here are some suggestions for civil disobedience or just traditional British bloody mindedness when faced by bureaucratic red tape, or for pranksterish lulz, short of an outright refusal to comply with filling in the Census Form and returning it, under the threat of a criminal record and a fine of up to £1000.
Whether the extra manual work which these suggestions may cause has already been budgeted for, or whether it will marginally decrease the profits of Lockheed Martin, remains to be seen:
- "Accidentally" cut off the individual page tracking barcodes
- Do not use blue or black ink
- Use joined up writing
- Use "The Occupier" or other pseudonyms
- SQL Injection statements
- Return the Census Form in a non-windowed envelope
- Send some or all of your junk mail to ONS via FREEPOST
- Individual Census Forms
- Terrorism Act 2000 section 58A Eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc
- Partial Post Codes
- Data Protection Act 1998 section 10 Right to prevent processing likely to cause damage or distress.
- Tick all of the checkboxes
- Do Not Sign the Census Form
- Assert your own Copyright - All Rights Reserved, to your own Personal Information
- Return the Form as Late As Possible
- Do not cooperate with "non-compliance" spies
- Complete both a paper and a slightly different online web Census Form
Please feed back any further suggestions, either here in the (anonymous) blog Comments or via email to blog@spy.org.uk (PGP encryption key available)
If enough people can cast doubt on the statistical validity of the Census, because of civil disobedience caused by its intrusive, security risking questions and the lack of legal assurance of absolute confidentiality from other government departmental snooping and data trawling, then perhaps then next Census will be radically shorter, simpler and less expensive.
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