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I am one of those who has gone around working for the Census 2010 folks doing the GPS "tagging" (hey, its a paying position )...In addition to the GPS coordinate inputted into the system, the residence becomes a file where additional information (assumptions, and some facts) are inputted as far as how many family(s) may live in the residence, number of rooms, vehicles and other readily decernable information can be assumed, to be refined in the next phase...

I absolutely see the concern some have raised about the whole big brother aspect of this activity...

After we are done, the second phase of the Census will begin...Those residences that are "tagged" will be the ones the Census workers will visit to ask the long form questions...The trick with all of this is if the phase two folks will truthfully refine the data...Thats where the activist groups will try to infiltrate those ranks and possibly skew the data...

I am not sure I will be included in the next phase though...

Thats about as simple as I can explain it...

Go to google earth.com and "fly" to your address. {time for program to boot-up} See anybody you know? Do you recognize the vehicles, pets, etc? Is that you in the pool?

Does anyone remember reading George Orwell's "1984"' or the movie of the same name starring Sterling Hayden and some blonde babe?

stevie_d_64 wrote:I am one of those...hey, its a paying position...I absolutely see the concern some have raised about the whole big brother aspect of this activity...

stevie_d_64, do you believe the Federal government is acting legally and within the constraints of the Constitution with this activity?

TheArmedFarmer wrote:

stevie_d_64 wrote:I am one of those...hey, its a paying position...I absolutely see the concern some have raised about the whole big brother aspect of this activity...

stevie_d_64, do you believe the Federal government is acting legally and within the constraints of the Constitution with this activity?

The constitution says nothing about a GPS. Just because something is legal doesn't make it right nor desireable.

The constitution requires a census or enumeration every ten years.

cbr600 wrote:

jimlongley wrote:BTW, there is no such thing as an "unlisted" number, they are all on lists at the various phone companies, they are just "unpublished."

That may be true for landlines but my only phone is a mobile and the bill goes to a business address. They have my name but if that concerns someone it's possible to buy prepaid cellular at Target with cash.

Your mobile is still "listed" and even the prepaid cellulars, as much as cop shows would like us to believe they are virtually untraceable are still " listed" per se.

And that includes buying one with cash, that's another myth that the tv shows would have us believe is common. The fact is that none of the service providers will turn on your service until you register the phone with them, which you do from a landline or a web site, most won't even let you do the activiation from another cell phone. How do they know the difference? Check out NANPA.COM, where the North American Numbering Plan Administration details their numbering schemes for all of the phones in the US.

Could you get one of those phones and somehow spoof the system so that they don't have your name and an address for you, well since part of the rationale behind the use of "pre-paid" wireless phones is to avoid the credit checks that block some people from qualifying for service, then you could probably give a fake name and address and get away with being "unlisted" but that phone would not do much good for you.

The first person you gave the number to so they could call you is a potential list, the first call you make WILL record the numbers called and calling somewhere, not CALLER ID, but the actual details of the call are captured in every switching point from origination to termination, and now you are listed.

Before SS7 was implemented in the 70s and 80s you might have been able to get away without your call details being recorded, but not anymore, and part of those details is the number associated with your registration of that phone, and even if it's a company phone from a business address, they know who they issued that phone to and thus, you're listed.

boomerang wrote:The constitution requires a census or enumeration every ten years.

Nowhere is it mentioned that they can ask you all those invasive questions. It's supposed to be a head count and nothing more.

And now they are GPS painting every front door in this country, and for what? Another gigantic database that can be abused? A companion database to the Patriot Act? Tyranny like this is increasing at an alarming rate, and I wonder how those individuals who are a part of it really feel about it.

I dont think the problem is Big Brother knowing the lat long of our homes. Its what they are spending to do it in this economy! I think there are better things this money can go to. How is this going to help the economy? How is this going to help the tax payers? How is this going to help us?

Its not!

XtremeDuty.45 wrote:I dont think the problem is Big Brother knowing the lat long of our homes. Its what they are spending to do it in this economy! I think there are better things this money can go to.

I don't know what the incremental cost us, but given that these census takers need to visit each house anyway, I can't imagine the incremental cost to capture the latitude and longitude is that much more. They already have to store survey data, so storing 2 extra floats also shouldn't cause any database storage issues.

Also, I can certainly see the benefit of having this data tied to each survey that's taken. It should make it easier to correlate the census data to locations without having to take the person's address and tie it to some external database.

Maybe I misread where is states..."Some people think it is, and are upset over an army of some 140,000 workers hired in part with a $700 million taxpayer-funded contract to collect GPS readings for every front door in the nation. The data collection, presented as preparation for the 2010 Census,"

That tells me they are going to do it prior to the census not during it. It also tells me its going to cost taxpayers $700 million.

Right, the lat/lon capture is completely separate and distinct from the census.

The lat/lon capture is happening while I'm typing out this post. The census doesn't begin until next year.

This is not something new. The only thing about this which is really new is the use of GPS to get the lat and long.

In 1990, I was working for the San Antonio PD and we started a unit for crime analysis. One of the tasks we started doing was having the computer produce the pin maps we had used for years. By using different symbols for the pin bsed on year or type of crime, you could see some very interesting trends. And, yes, this is relevant here.

We purchased the mapping program from a company named MapInfo (this was the second most popular mapping program, the most popular was ArcInfo by ESRI). Then we purchased files that had the grid coordinates for the addresses and streets. To get Bexar County's data, we bought what was called a Tiger File. MapInfo got the data files for us frm the US Census Bureau. They had been doing this the hard way for a long time. Every deed had the information recorded (Texas uses a different grid for it than lat-long BTW) and the Census bureau was collecting this, verifying some points of it with surveying data, and publishing the data files as Tiger Files.

The tiger file had the address and its coordinates, every intersection and its coordinates, and the block numbers on each side of the street between intersections.

So, there may be valid complaints over the cost, and may be complaints over the company with the contract (BTW, they are not doing the survey or getting the data, just supplying the people), but it is not a giant conspiracy to target anyone.

We have enough real problems with the government and its actions, we don't need to create more with conspiracy theories.

And I was just about to apply for a cab driver job in New York City!

Oldgringo wrote:Does anyone remember reading George Orwell's "1984"' or the movie of the same name starring Sterling Hayden and some blonde babe?

I remember reading the book, a couple of times, quite well, but I don't remember Sterling Hayden being in the movie. Are you sure you're not thinking of Dr. Strangelove?

stevie_d - Maybe you can clarify but I remember hearing from a census worker that they are allowed to hop your locked fence even if you posted no trespassing/soliciting signs.