In 1978 the 72 Year Rule was passed which governs the timeframe of when the census can be released. 

It states: “The U.S. government will not release personally identifiable information about an individual to any other individual or agency until 72 years after it was collected for the decennial census. This "72-Year Rule" (92 Stat. 915; Public Law 95-416; October 5, 1978) restricts access to decennial census records to all but the individual named on the record or their legal heir.” President Franklin Roosevelt even proclaimed, "No person can be harmed in any way by furnishing the information required. There need be no fear that any disclosure will be made regarding any individual or his affairs." This however was long before the great advancements in technology that we now have today. 

We propose that this waiting time frame of censes records to be released are removed. As technology has greatly changed since 1978 accessing addresses, phone numbers, driver license, voter identification and many other forms of identification are easily found on the internet through a variety of different searches. These are public records. Holding the census for 72 years in a claim to respect individual privacy and/or information is not needed in today’s world with this amount of technological advancements that we have made. 

The censes is primarily used for obtaining population and demographic information in today’s time. This information is then used for redistricting government lines and positions, helping the government plan funding for communities, and understanding how citizens are changing within our country. These statistics, charts, numbers, and percentages are released not long after the censes is gathered. 

We propose that all census information is released along with the population and demographic information is released. The is not a true valid reason to hold the census records for 72 years anymore.