Do you care who knows your secrets in 2098? is another article about the Candian Census, and this time around being able to opt out of having the information revealed in 2098. It’s by Peter Van Harten,writing for the The Hamilton Spectator, and it gets into some of the issues faced by Canadians over just how much information they want revealed for people in the future to see (whether genealogists or family members). With so much of this information coming online and being easily accessed, and with the questions expanding quite a bit, it’s fast becoming a hot topic.
I can’t speak for Canada, but I know quite a few Americans who are ticked at some of the questions on the current US 2006 “test” census or whatever you want to call it, that came out over the last month or two.
Excerpt from the article:
Will your great-grandchildren still love you in 2098?
That’s when they will be able to find out who — on May 16, 2006 — you were living with, what sex your partner was, whether you were married, what you earned and potentially other kinds of personal secrets. But that’s only if you answered Yes to a new question on the 2006 census form likely arriving in your mail box in a few weeks.
The confidentiality question allowing your personal information to be made public after 92 years is but one of several new features of the 2006 census forms going out to 12.7-million households and all agricultural operations.