It seems that the privacy watchdog in Ottawa is investigating the Liberal government’s survey on electoral reform. The privacy commissioner’s office is concerned that the Liberals should not have included collecting demographic information in the survey. It might be an invasion of privacy.
But since you decided not to give them accurate information, what is the problem? Does anyone give accurate demographic information on surveys anymore? It would probably be important to someone who rarely responds to surveys but anyone who knows surveys usually knows what is required for that survey.
Of course, answering the demographic questions was claimed to be optional. Mind you, your answers were not considered unless you did.
And think of it this way: you are not being all that helpful if you provide the truth. For example, even if you are over 65, you should tell the survey you are under 25. If you get lucky, your response will count double. (All surveys have a formula to account for lack of response from the under-25 age group.)
And you would never want to admit that you live in poverty. It is hard to get millionaires to do surveys. You can help by selecting the highest-level income.
A trick question is the provision of a postal code. If you are answering the same questionnaire multiple times, you should have a stock of interesting postal codes from across the country. Pick the ones that are most remote.
The wife sometimes gets annoyed when we have put the TV on pause to answer an automated telephone co-incidental survey. She knows what we are doing when she sees us hitting buttons on the phone at seeming random. It is always interesting to see who is surveying for what and you can usually figure it out. It also means we have to check Liberalist occasionally to find if we have misread a Liberal party call and make sure they do not have us down as a Green Party supporter.
It is also fun to do the mydemocracy.ca test a number of times to have the conclusion that you are each of the types they define. What the survey is apparently designed to do is provide the democratic reform ministry with a pattern of possible avenues of voting reform that might be accepted by Canadians. Good luck to them on that.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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