Speech #900151558

In a letter to the Subcommittee on Census and Statistics of the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. Professor Miller stated: In an age in which federal information acquisition and dissemination is at an all time high. an age in which governmental snooping through electronic devices is carried out on a widescale basis. in an age in which national data centers and monolithic information gathering and analyzing techniques are being proposed. it should be the Congress that is in the forefront of protecting individual privacy. The number of people who inevitably will see an individuals answers to the questions proposed for the 1970 census and the possibility that these responses can be computerized and analyzed on an associative basis with information connected by the Internal Revenue Service. the FBI. the Post Office. the Immigration and Naturalization Service. and others suggest that the most careful scrutiny must be given to the process of governmental Information collecting and processing. Obviously. a balance must be struck between an individuals privacy and governmental recordkeeplng and administration. I strongly urge. however. that the imposition of penal sanctions for failure to respond to many of the personal questions that will be asked in connection with the 1970 decennial census cannot be Justified no matter how the balance is struck.