With the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program formally rescinded (with a six-month implementation delay), there have been a lot of questions about whether the databases created for the program - as well as state and local support programs - could ultimately be used against DACA recipients. Last November, one DACA recipient predicted just that situation in an unsuccessful plea to former President Barack Obama to delete the database, and now the issue is likely to play out across states and municipalities throughout the United States.

From the first mechanical counters to the first digital computers, the U.S. Census Bureau has lead the computer revolution since the 19th Century. Their decennial upgrade cycle means they’re operating on modern hardware, with their oldest active computer dating back to just 1999.

In response to a recent Freedom of Information Act request seeking information on potential abuse of Census records, the FOIA officer sent a letter saying “[t]he U.S. Census Bureau neither confirms nor denies the existence of any records responsive to your request.” This makes Census Bureau just the latest in a string of unlikely agencies to handing out the infamous GLOMAR exemption.

As citizens of a democracy, we’d like to believe that our tax money is spent on programs and products that will support the nation, and create a better, stronger society. So what do we do when we discover that more than $33 million dollars was spent on a web application few find useful?