A group of experts called the Census Quality Reinforcement Task Force wrote a letter to Congress about updating a 50-year-old privacy law. The Privacy Act of 1974 controls how the government can use personal information it collects from people. The task force is worried because a new government office called DOGE has been looking at private data without permission, which could make people less willing to answer census surveys.
The census is very important because it helps decide how many representatives each state gets in Congress and how federal money gets shared. The task force includes over 250 people like data scientists, civil rights leaders, and former Census Bureau directors. They want Congress to strengthen privacy protections so people will trust the government enough to participate in the census and other surveys.
Without this trust, the government won't have good data to make important decisions that affect everyone's lives. The letter explains how privacy laws work together to protect statistical data and why confidentiality is essential for accurate government information.