September 13, 2016 12:14PM # Using the Income Tax to Map Our Lives By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree that all the world should be taxed. And lo, the ubiquity of taxation made it possible for the Treasury Department to identify all the same-sex marriages in the land by zip code and [present the data in tables and a map](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/upshot/the-most-detailed-map-of-gay-marriage-in-america.html?_r=0). And in all the land only a few paranoids [worried](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/census-confidentiality-checks-is-mail) about the implications for [privacy](http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/05/08/Why-the-Census-Bureau-Wants-to-Invade-Your-Privacy) and [freedom](https://www.cato.org/publications/speeches/economic-civil-liberties-case-national-sales-tax), of [gay](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3607873/I-ll-break-law-ANDREW-PIERCE-objects-census-asking-sexuality.html) [people](http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/10/us-census-may-start-asking-sexual-orientation-questions/) and [others](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1539620/Blair-wants-Whitehall-to-share-your-data.html), of [a government that knows](http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/nowhere-hide-governments-massive-intrusion-our-lives) [everything](http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-spies-on-millions-of-cars-1422314779) about you. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).