Further references: https://paperistheway.org/ (or their Facebook, with plenty of discussion and links; public group, so you don't need to be signed into Facebook to see: https://www.facebook.com/paperistheway/) https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/open-letter-david-kalisch-australian-bureau-statistics
On Fri, Aug 5, 2016 at 12:49 PM, Olivier Mehani <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > Not really software-Freedom related, but civil liberties and privacy > seem more in more seem to go hand-in-hand with the topic, and are once > more eroding. > > You might have heard that, this year (well, next week), data collected > for the Australian Census will contain and, more worryingly, retain > identifying information along with the responses [0], with no > possibility to opt-out. > > This is concerning both from a privacy and a data-quality perspectives. > First, non-anonymous surveys create the risk, when (not if) data is > leaked, that people will be discriminated or persecuted based on their > responses. There already are some nutters suggesting to use this > information to track people based on their religious beliefs [1]. > > Then, it also increases the risk that people will not respond truly > to protect things they might not want to see attached to their name. Or > things they might think can become dangerous for them in the future > (once again, [1]). > > I'm trying to think about ways to give truthful answers while masking > one's identity, but I suspect it will be difficult considering they gave > a per-household code. Perhaps we should all make sure to not be home on > census day, and congregate in public places to fill in the details. Any > other ideas about how to de-correlate responses from identity? > > Anyway, there are a couple of petitions floating around [2,3] asking the > ABS to revert this decision. It's getting a bit late but, if you care, > please sign them and circulate them around. > > I'm trying really hard not to score a Godwin point right now. > > [0] https://www.efa.org.au/privacy/census-2016/ > [1] DON'T SIGN THAT ONE https://www.change.org/p/ > david-kalisch-abs-gov-au-make-it-compulsory-on-australian- > census-form-to-answer-the-question-about-religion DON'T SIGN THAT ONE > [2] https://www.change.org/p/australian-bureau-of- > statistics-reverse-australian-bureau-of-statistics-s- > removal-of-census-anonymity > [3] http://campaigns.greens.org.au/ea-action/action?ea.client. > id=1792&ea.campaign.id=49505 > > -- > Olivier Mehani <[email protected]> > PGP fingerprint: 4435 CF6A 7C8D DD9B E2DE F5F9 F012 A6E2 98C6 6655 > Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed on emails sent or received > unencrypted. > > _______________________________________________ > Free-software-melb mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/cgi-bin/mailman/ > listinfo/free-software-melb > > > Free Software Melbourne home page: http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/ > -- Regards, Matthew Cengia _______________________________________________ Free-software-melb mailing list [email protected] http://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/free-software-melb Free Software Melbourne home page: http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/
