Bureau of the Census: Legislative Proposal to Share Address List Data Has
Benefits and Risks (Testimony, 07/21/94, GAO/T-GGD-94-184).

A legislative proposal from the Department of Commerce would allow the
Bureau of the Census to share address list data with the U.S. Postal
Service, other federal agencies, and local governments. This proposal
offers opportunities for the Bureau to improve its address lists, but it
also raises privacy and confidentiality concerns about the use of census
data. GAO supports the general concept of the sharing of data among
federal statistical agencies for statistical purposes as currently under
consideration by the Office of Management and Budget. GAO also supports
initiatives to facilitate the sharing of address list data between the
Postal Service and the Bureau. However, the Commerce Department has not
provided sufficient justification to support its request for authority
to share the Bureau's address list data with agencies other than the
Postal Service.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-GGD-94-184
     TITLE:  Bureau of the Census: Legislative Proposal to Share Address 
             List Data Has Benefits and Risks
      DATE:  07/21/94
   SUBJECT:  Census
             Proposed legislation
             Mailing lists
             Statistical methods
             Demographic data
             Data collection operations
             Interagency relations
             Intergovernmental relations
             Data integrity
             Privacy law
IDENTIFIER:  Census Bureau Precensus Local Review Program
             1995 Test Census
             
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