This is a terrible idea. If you were somewhere that you might actually face legal repercussions for being gay that would be reasonable...though those places are also not likely to ask for your sexuality on the census. But in Australia, not being honest is a fantastic way to see that your demographic gets ignored.

[–] No1@aussie.zone 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

census is now identifiable

Uh, no it isn’t?

Oh, my sweet summer child...

I was pissed at the last one because it felt like an invasion of privacy lol.

[–] NaevaTheRat@vegantheoryclub.org 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Idk what the current status is but last I checked they literally keep addresses and names in a Totally Secure (TM) government database and just like hash (or some other "one way" crypto encoding) them when distributing subsets to researchers. Have they actually changed that policy of direct retention?

[–] No1@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Forget name/address. The info in the other questions is what was pissing me off. That's enough to ID you.

It's like browser fingerprinting

[–] NaevaTheRat@vegantheoryclub.org 1 points 2 months ago

true that.

[–] NaevaTheRat@vegantheoryclub.org 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

you should read research on deanonymising data. The government lies, they literally introduced a bill in 2018 trying to bam cryptography because some researchers embarrassed them by proving you could re-identity census data.

Idk what planet you live on but the nsw government literally does eugenics on trans people. I had to get steralised to not have all my ID out me all the time and get the right title etc.

You are young, things can change fast the pendulum of tolerance swings back and forth, Whig history is demonstrably false.

here is a reasonable summary of concerns https://www.salingerprivacy.com.au/2016/03/17/census-no-longer-anonymous/

and here is recent research on deanoning datasets https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10933-3

edit: also defending the census because of overreliance on it is stupid. We should not make important decisions on unverifiable data. If not being on the census means no funding then the funding model is broken, not the person who doesn't want to be recorded. Censuses have historically been used for extremely bad shit, Australia is a nation founded in exploitation and genocide. There are extremely good reasons why certain people might lie or hide.