Hi Simon, I'm not sure why US law would hold, since the census would be within UK and subject to UK laws. But it's shocking that this has been delegated to any private/commercial company; the whole point of the census is demographic neutrality. Is this part of a general privatization of functions like these? What about the health-care system for example?
Thanks, Alan On Sun, 20 Mar 2011, Simon Biggs wrote: > The census use to be government run in the UK but they asked for sensitive > information that could be used against you. I understand its value for > planning and consider some aspects of it valid. When I was in Australia I > always filled it in. At that time they didn't ask about things I find > difficult now. The UK have now decided to use a US company, and a dodgy one > at that, making the issue more difficult. Firstly, the data will be > collected and processed by a military organisation and, secondly, US law > might override UK law and require disclosure, making a mockery of the UK's > data protection systems. > > Best > > Simon > > > On 20/03/2011 16:08, "Alan Sondheim" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> In the US, the census is government run; Azure worked for them this year. >> It's important for people to fill the stuff out, since funding and votes >> depend on it. Oddly, othodox Jews resisted. >> >> - Alan >> >> On Sun, 20 Mar 2011, Simon Biggs wrote: >> >>> I ignored the last one and will ignore this one. I'm a private citizen. >>> >>> Best >>> >>> Simon >>> >>> >>> On 20/03/2011 12:50, "list|marianne" <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> Resistance to the decennial census is growing as a coalition of anti-war >>>> groups, pacifists, religious organisations and digital activists begin >>>> raising public awareness about the role of Lockheed Martin, America's >>>> largest arms manufacturer. >>>> >>>> The company, which makes Trident nuclear missiles, cluster bombs and F-16 >>>> fighter jets, won the ?150m contract to run the census on behalf of the >>>> Office for National Statistics (ONS). >>>> >>>> "The really worrying thing is the fact that the information being collected >>>> in the next census ? including new questions on sources of income and place >>>> of birth [to help monitor immigration] ? would be ideal fodder for the >>>> kind >>>> of anti-terror analyses being carried out by Lockheed, and could lead to a >>>> faraway database identifying thousands of us as potential 'threats'." >>>> >>>> Lockheed Martin ? which does 80% of its work for the US defence department >>>> ? >>>> assists more than two dozen American government agencies and is involved in >>>> surveillance and data processing for the CIA and FBI. It has >>>> controversially >>>> provided private contract interrogators to the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq >>>> and >>>> Guant?namo Bay in Cuba. All US-based companies are subject to the Patriot >>>> Act, which allows the US government to have access to any data in the >>>> company's possession. Campaigners have warned this could give the US >>>> government access to detailed and personal data on the UK's entire >>>> population. >>>> >>>> >>>> http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/19/census-boycott-lockheed-martin >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> NetBehaviour mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >>>> >>> >>> >>> Simon Biggs >>> [email protected] >>> http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ >>> >>> [email protected] >>> http://www.elmcip.net/ >>> http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> NetBehaviour mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >>> >>> >> >> >> == >> email archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ >> webpage http://www.alansondheim.org >> music archive: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ >> current text http://www.alansondheim.org/qx.txt >> == >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> > > > Simon Biggs > [email protected] > http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ > > [email protected] > http://www.elmcip.net/ > http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > == email archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ webpage http://www.alansondheim.org music archive: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ current text http://www.alansondheim.org/qx.txt == _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
