If we feel the reporting burden is too great or the needs of the agricultural community will not be served by the survey, we will not conduct the survey. Although the data are collected by NASS on behalf of the sponsoring organization, all personal identifiers such as name, address, phone number, etc., are removed. Results of the study are published. Summary data from all NASS surveys and censuses are available to everyone, but will never disclose individual reported information. NASS releases published data to everyone at the same time.
Most reports are available on the Internet within minutes of the scheduled release.
Participants in the survey can rest assured that no individual data will be disclosed. For instance, if only one farm produced rice in Pulaski County, Arkansas, then NASS will protect the privacy of that individual farm by not publishing rice data for Pulaski County. Instead, the data would be combined with reports from other counties in the State and published at the aggregate level. No reported data are ever published in a way that would identify an operation.