A story: My address was selected for the CPS (!) and January was my household's fourth month. The Census Bureau notified us who our interviewer was but the person never called. I called her and she entirely dismissed me. #jobsday

Note: the first two interviewers were incredible. This is a really difficult time to collect data for the Census Bureau bc of the pandemic and people being scattered about.

I tried contacting my regional office several times but never got a call back. Finally, I learned something new - there is a Census Office of the Respondent Advocate. They called me back and really made me feel heard.

By then, the data collection window was closed. I assume our month three responses were carried forward or we were non-respondents and our responses were imputed. Pretty sad. I take responding to the survey very seriously!

Anyway, two lessons:
1. Low response rates are not always bc of respondents!
2. Privacy dominates the discourse, but I want the right as a respondent to see how my data are reported for month 4. My story was supposed to be in the data and I feel robbed of that opportunity.

P.S. Respondents should be able to opt out of statistical disclosure limitation. It creates some theory challenges, especially for differential privacy, but privacy is the right to choose how info is shared and I would rather be accurately included in the data than anonymous.