The purpose of the Confidentiality Notification Experiment was to determine the effect of confidentiality-related messages, written in language that respondents can easily understand, embedded in the cover letter that accompanied the initial census questionnaire mailing. The effect of two messages are of interest to this study: an administrative records-use message, which has not previously appeared in decennial production cover letters, and an alternative to the “standard” statistical purposes statement that was used in 2010 Census production materials. With regard to a administrative records data-linkage message, there is no definitive legal requirement that the U.S. Census Bureau provide respondents with a data-linkage notification; however, policy considerations come into play and stakeholders have recommended the inclusion of such a statement.

Others in Series

Publication

2010 Census Address Canvassing Operational Assessment

January 17, 2012

Assessment of the 2010 Census Address Canvassing Operational Assessment documenting planning assumptions, activities, results, statistics, and analysis.

Publication

Alternative Questionnaire Experiment: Census 2000 Form Replication

January 19, 2012

Results of 2010 experiment & panel to determine the combined data effects of all questionnaire changes made to the 2010 Census mail questionnaire.

Publication

2010 Census: Update/Leave Quality Profile

February 07, 2012

Results of the 2010 Census Update/Leave Quality Control program.

Related Information

Decennial Census of Population and Housing Publications

Page Last Revised - October 8, 2021

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