Duncan Garner: Why I don't fill out the census form

Opinion 26/08/2019

There's a reason I didn't fill out my census form last year and last time and the time before that.

I'm really uncomfortable giving the state all my information. 

I don't trust them not to either misuse it, post it or sell it to John-Boy in Nigeria who says he's studying a new post-grad Degree in Online Document Movement Theory. 

The world is not a very private place now, is it?

These creeps who trawl websites hoping to stumble upon gold have done so with this latest meltdown from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and Total Incompetence. 

Staying private is hard these days. Everything is available, everything is online, and everything you say or do or post online will effectively stay there forever - ask an expert to show you how much is online about yourself, then you might change your view. 

But this is more than a little bit slack - 302 individuals are affected, many are mortified by this.

This can breed everything from credit card fraud to identity theft and terrorism.

Elevate the crime, make departments and businesses responsible and liable and fine them in the worst cases - they need to know they can no longer be blasé about this.

Duncan Garner is host of The AM Show.