You think your degree (if you even have one) gives you the right to invade our privacy??? Do you not understand that once these questions are linked with a phone number and the demographics of the victim err I mean respondent, that it is relatively trivial to associate the profile with a specific individual??? I suspect you know that perfectly well and choose not to disclose it.
I doubt that your name is Johnson, it's the most common name in the MN phonebook. And I doubt you're a doctor of anything, although that really doesn't matter. The bottom line is that you are a professional privacy invader and have just misrepresented how easy it is to identify the victims err I mean participants in your invasive little survey. You are disingenuous at best.
THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS. LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE. STOP INVADING OUR PRIVACY. Or at least wait until the government determines that we have weapons of mass destruction in our basement, then you can do whatever you want with us. And sieg hiel to you, comrade!
Your concerns about about confidentiality and privacy are valid and important. And, yes, in the unscrupulous world of private industry such credit cards, banking, shopping, and many other everyday activities that I am sure you and most of us are engaged in, breaches in privacy have occurred...especially when names are directly linked to information.
This is not the case with the BRFSS, the telephone numbers are in a completely different database from people surveys responses and they cannot ever be linked back. Furthermore, the survey response information that you provide does not include enough identifiable information to connect it with a specific individual.
Finally, in the case of the BRFSS, since its beginning in 1984 and within every State, there has NOT BEEN A SINGLE case where someones information and responses have been linked back to identify a specific individual. That is almost 3 million surveys! Feel free to check. Thus, nothing has been misrepresented...except your unfounded opinions which are not based upon any facts.
I prefer not to live in a world of conspiracies, constantly worrying that my neighbors, friends, and others are out to get me.
It's nice you prefer not to live in a world where no one is out to get you. The innocent victims of scams and identity theft that started because of a phone call would prefer not to either, but they don't have the luxury of ignorance that you apparently do.
You have chosen a communication vector -- the telephone -- which has all but been co-opted by scammers.
Look at it this way. In less than 2 minutes, I could buy a spoof card and start calling the fine citizens of Minnesota to conduct my own "survey". What would show up on their caller ID? YOUR NUMBER! Now, let's say they came to this site or one like it, read your pontifications about how safe and above-board this all is, and decided it was ok to answer your questions. Problem is, those wouldn't be your questions, and it wouldn't be you on the other end of the phone. I'm sure millions of surveys may have been conducted before that was even possible, but today it is not only possible, it is EASY, and scammers are doing it all the time. Times have changed. Keep up.
It doesn't matter whether what you say about the validity and confidentiality of your survey is true or not. That's worth repeating: IT DOESN'T MATTER. Anyone who volunteers any information to an unknown person who calls them is a fool. More and more people have become aware of this fact, and maybe someday you too will understand -- and I hope you don't have to learn it the hard way.
Go to the home page of this web site and start reading about the amazing number of ways that the telephone is being used these days. I think it would be safe to assume that 90% of cold calls are scams, but let's say it's only 50% -- why would anyone want to take even that much of a risk?
And what about cell phones, or land lines that are forwarded to cell phones? Wouldn't it be ironic if someone driving a car answered your call on the cell phone and had an accident? And there you are, trying to improve public health!
These are all plausible scenarios. Think about these things rationally for a minute, doctor. Really, think about it.
It's going to be increasingly difficult for you to get the desired response rates to your survey, because the public is reaching a deep understanding of how dangerous it is to ever respond to a stranger on the phone. You will need to find another way sooner or later, so you should start planning for it now.
This is an invasion of privacy and you have no right to any personal information
about anyone unless you have a warrant. This type of phone call would not
have happened 30 years ago. The obsession with other people's personal
information is a disease of our modern age. We even have google indexing
personal information on people WITHOUT their permission. Facebook is
another symptom of our times. People revealing information that they do
not know how it will be used in the future. The best policy is never answer
the phone unless its a friend calling. Other people can correspond by mail.