The 2011 Census is rapidly approaching on Sunday 27th March 2011 and the Government bureaucracy is preparing its media spin and propaganda campaign:
Have a look at this Census 2011 Press centre page: Local Press resources, updated 27th November 2010
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Media incident guidelines
The 2011 Census press team has established a comprehensive media handling and issue tracking process. The press team will focus its resources on national and regional press, TV and radio. However, certain events and local press enquiries could mean that you want some support. Possible scenarios are:
Negative local media coverage: If you become aware of any negative local media coverage about the 2011 Census which may affect return rates or could damage the reputation of the 2011 Census and/or ONS, please contact your local census area manager or ACLM.
Difficult press enquiries: Press enquiries can be passed on to your 2011 Census area manager if:
- you do not feel confident that you have enough information to satisfy a specific journalist request/enquiry
- the journalist asks for an official ONS comment
- the journalist is looking for information outside your area
- you are unsure of the angle the journalist is taking - or suspect they may take a negative line
Other events: If ever something happens that you think could become a media issue, please call your 2011 Census area manager to talk it through.
For all emergencies requiring urgent communication with the 2011 Census press team in Titchfield, please call the 2011 Census Press Hotline:
01329 447654
2011 Census press officers are available on this number 24 hours a day. This is a press hotline and should only ever be used in an emergency.
A 24 hour a day census media spin hotline, to counter journalists who are merely "suspected" of "taking a negative line"
This is in itself, highly suspicious - what exactly are they trying to hide ?
Social media guidelines
The 2011 Census campaign includes activities to monitor and engage appropriately with social media. The viral nature of social media calls for extra care whenever your team is representing the 2011 Census in social media, Please observe our guidelines to avoid a social media crisis.
If you are at all unsure, please contact us at 2011censusLAcomms@ons.gov.uk for advice.
Will this "social media monitoring and engagement" manage to detect this blog post and its corresponding tweet ?
Response statements
Should the national press raise an issue that could cause public concern, damage the reputation or success of the 2011 Census, and require correction/clarification, we may publish an official response/position statement on the 2011 Census website, www.census.gov.uk/2011press. We will send you an email alert whenever these are published on the press centre. A detailed explanation of the background, research and consultation involved in developing the 2011 Census questions is available on the ONS website.
Are there any journalists or social media commentators who would like to test this spin system with some "Negative local media coverage" or "difficult press enquiries" or issues "which may raise public concern" ?
See our previous Spy Blog article United Kingdom (England & Wales) Census Day - Sunday 27th March 2011 - will you boycott the intrusive, snooping questions ?
Some Questions to Ask:
- The outsourcing of the Census data processing to the United States defence contractor Lockheed Martin, whose company officers and executives have no choice under the US Patriot Act but to allow US Government agencies to snoop on our unredacted, not yet anonymised Census data . What proof is there that US employees or citizens will have no access to our Census Data ?
- The mysterious, secret, Census 2011 Online Completion website, which will be available from March 5th 2011.
- Why is there no preview URL for the public and media to check the "look and feel" and functionality ?
- What strength of SSL / TLS Digital Certificate and cryptographic algorithms will be employed, if any ?
- What proof is there that the data will not be shipped from the webserver to back end servers unencrypted ?
- Will the web forms attempt to force you to answer every Question, even if you want to leave something blank ?
- Will the website employ web bugs and foreign based Google tracking cookies (like the Census 20111 website does, for no good reason)
- What Communications Data logfile tracking will there be ? This would be a bonanza for Google or other tracking cookie systems if they are in place.
- What measures exactly are in place to prevent the "Census Online Completion" website from grinding to a halt, due to entirely predictable peak demand, as we have seen with previous Office of National Statistics historical census websites and with the HMRC self assessment tax return website etc. ?
- Why is there no preview URL for the public and media to check the "look and feel" and functionality ?
- What proof is there that there will not be Another Massive Data Loss Disaster involving CDs, DVDs, USB memory devices, laptop computer losses or thefts, as we have seen with HMRC and the Ministry of Defence etc. ?
- Can census takers and the Census board be prosecuted under the Terrorism Act 2000 section 58A Eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc, which applies, without any exceptions, to all current and former members of the intelligence agencies, military personnel or police constables?
- Will the Census contain accurate lists of the names, home addresses, workplace addresses, job titles and sensitive personal data details of all the UK based employees of MI5 the Security Service, MI6 the Secret Intelligence Service, GCHQ, the Defence Intelligence Staff, members of the Special Forces (e.g. the Special Air Service (SAS) or Special Boat Squadron (SBS) or the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) ) or the Metropolitan or West Midlands or Thames Valley Police Counter-Terrorism Command, the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (NETCU) etc ?
- Will these groups of secret civil servants be prosecuted for not filling in the Census Form completely and accurately ? If not, then what legal basis is there for any exemption for these secretive people or for others like Judges, or Prison Warders or people in Witness Protection Schemes etc. ? There is none in the census legislation as it stands.
- Most importantly, what about the fact that the old legal protections against the sharing of Sensitive Personal Data defined in the Data Protection Act 1998 Part 1 section 2 Sensitive personal data on religion, health , sexuality etc.collected during the Census have now been abolished. ?
- What proof is there that our confidential sensitive personal data will not be shared with the intelligence agencies, the police, the immigration authorities, the tax authorities, foreign governments or private sector companies now that such sharing is exempt from the 2 years in prison penalty under the old Census Act 1921, by virtue of the wide ranging exemptions which were sneaked into the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 section 39. Confidentiality of personal information ?
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