#data integrity

[onlytiktoks]

[hansilw]

NEW: The Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS) calls President Trump's order to fire Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer "a watershed moment for federal statistics," adding it "unnecessarily politicizes data which are intended to be independent and trustworthy"

[fuzzyizmit]

Zoom's Updated Terms of Service Permit Training AI on User Content Without Opt-Out

Zoom Video Communications, Inc. recently updated its Terms of Service to encompass what some critics are calling a significant invasion of u

OH FFS!

[duggardata]

Very Slight Change to Rule Used To Estimate Certain Data

Duggar Data loves exact data; however, it isn’t always available…  Say, when a couple tells us that a relevant event happened in “March,” or “Early March,” but doesn’t give an exact date.  Duggar Data estimates the date in these situations, and does so using a set of established rules to ensure “Early March” is always estimated the same way.

I’ve been rethinking my estimating rules recently, and I’ve decided to change them slightly.  It’s honestly really slight…  It probably doesn’t even matter.  But, I wanted to let you know!

Until now, my rules for estimating Month + Year (e.g., March 2020) and Specific Portion of Month [+ Year] (e.g., Early March 2020) were also follows—

Month + Year   Use the midpoint of the month.  (Round up if it’s a month with an even number of days.)

“Mid” Month   Same analysis as above.

“Early” Month   Use the 1st Quartile—i.e., the midpoint of the 1st Half of the month.  (Round up, if necessary.)

“Late” Month   Use the 3rd Quartile—i.e., the midpoint of the 2nd Half of the month.  (Round up, if necessary.)

Applying these rules, here’s the date I’d end up using—

Month + Year   15th (Months w/ 28 or 29 Days), 16th (w/ 30 or 31 Days)

“Mid” Month   15th (Months w/ 28 or 29 Days), 16th (w/ 30 or 31 Days)

“Early” Month   8th (Regardless of # of Days)

“Late” Month   22nd (Months w/ 28 Days), 23rd (w/ 29 or 30 Days), 24th (w/ 31 Days)

I don’t really like this.  Mostly because it implies that “Early” [Month] consists of the entire first half, and it’s just…  Not.  I wouldn’t consider Valentine’s Day to be in “Early February,” would you?

So, I’ve decided to switch things up…  Instead of dividing months into “Early” and “Late,” I will divide them into 3 Parts—Early, Middle, and Late.  Each part gets the same amount of days, to the extent possible.  As a rule, let’s always ensure that “Early” and “Late” get the same number of days; any extra days are allocated to “Middle.”  So, here’s what’s defined as Early, Middle, and Late—

28–Day Months   1–9 (Early), 10–19 (Middle), 20–28 (Late)

29–Day Months   1–9 (Early), 10–20 (Middle), 21–29 (Late)

30–Day Months   1–10 (Early), 11–20 (Middle), 21–30 (Late)

31–Day Months   1–10 (Early), 11–21 (Middle), 22–31 (Late)

… and, just like before, our Estimate Date would just be the midpoint of the relevant range.  Unlike before, let’s round down if the hint is “Early” Month and the Early Range consists of an even number of values.  (For “Mid” or “Late,” we’ll still round up.)  Here’s the date we’ll end up using, after applying this new rule—

“Early”   5th (Regardless of # of Days)

“Middle”   15th (Months w/ 28 or 29 Days), 16th (w/ 30 or 31 Days)

“Late”   24 (Months w/ 28 Days), 25 (w/ 29 Days), 26 (w/ 30 Days), 27 (w/ 31 Days)

If we’re told a Month + Year, but “Early” or “Late” isn’t stated, we’ll just take the midpoint of the entire month, rounded up if necessary.  (Like we did before.)

Like I said, it’s a small shift…  3 Days or Less, actually.  Regardless, the following data will be directly impacted by the rule change.  For all of these, we were told that the event was in “Early” or “Late” [Month], and that’s it…

C. Bontrager–Bowers #2’s Due Date   Said to be due “end of August” 2020.  This is treated the same as “Late August.”  Was using August 24, 2020.  Now using August 27, 2020 (+3 Days).

Samuel Dillard’s Due Date   Said to be in “Early July” 2017.  Was using July 8, 2017.  Now using July 5, 2017 (–3 Days).

Peter Waller’s Due Date   Said to be in “Early May” 2020.  Was using May 8, 2020.  Now using May 5, 2020 (–3 Days).

That’s it!  Just wanted to let you give know about this very, very slight change.

[hansilw]

NEW: "We create all these frameworks on how the private sector shares your personal data. I'm not convinced that we the government live up to those same standards on a daily basis," Mark Calabria, chief statistician of the United States at the White House's Office of Management and Budget overseeing the Census Bureau and other federal statistical agencies, said Thursday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies workshop.

Calabria said part of his agenda is getting to a point "where we can say the federal government is first in class in protecting your data," adding he believes "on a road from 1 to 100, maybe [the government is] about 60." I've reached out to OMB's press office to ask why Calabria believes this.

[hansilw]

On Day 20 of the federal government shutdown, Ken Beyersdorf — an employee of the Census Bureau's contact center in Tucson, Ariz., who's on furlough and whose union is fighting in court against layoffs that are on hold for now — says, "I'm not sure how we're going to be paying our bills in the future."

Beyersdorf, who is also vice president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1207, says if the Trump administration's layoffs go through, he's worried U.S. data will take a big hit: "If you care anything about the statistics you're gathering, you need to fund those programs and put people to work that can collect those reliably.”

[hansilw]

SCOOP: The Trump administration has installed a new acting director of the Census Bureau, NPR has learned. George Cook takes over the federal government’s largest statistical agency after it's been thrust into the middle of a renewed attempt by President Trump to alter the national head count

The Census Bureau is now headed by a Trump official in an acting position

George Cook is the Trump administration's new acting director of the Census Bureau, which has been thrust into the middle of a renewed attem

As of Saturday at 6:35 a.m. ET, the Census Bureau’s webpage about its executive leadership lists George Cook as “Performing the Duties of Director.”

The bureau’s website says Cook “worked at Brevan Howard from 2012 to 2017, BlackRock from 2017 to 2024, and briefly began launching Justinian Advisory, a startup economic research firm, before beginning his public service.”

Federal law requires the agency's permanent director to "have a demonstrated ability in managing large organizations and experience in the collection, analysis, and use of statistical data.”

[hansilw]

NEW: In response to the DOGE team of President Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk saying in an X post that a review of federal government surveys conducted by the Census Bureau has resulted in five being "terminated," Nick Hart of the Data Foundation, an open data advocacy group, says "DOGE interventions in the federal statistical system without transparency are concerning and may undermine the availability of future data Congress, the American people, and businesses rely on for objective information about our economy, public health, and society"

Statement about Reported DOGE Activities Affecting Federal Statistics

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 21, 2025 – The following is a statement from Nick Hart, President and CEO of the Data Foundation