Stealth changes

[tobee]

I'm quite sad and when I'm asked to do a survey I usually oblige. Obviously an egotist as well.

So on a Facebook link this morning there was a survey where the first question was:- gender - male or female being the choice. I suppose I should be grateful it wasn't "which gender do you most closely identify with Male, female, other?" which I've had from fucking Next and others.

These tiny battles and insidious changes need to be fought all the time. I'm so sick of it. But I will not answer these bloody surveys where they don't ask "what sex?" And give me a choice of two!

Rant over. Blood pressure needs checking.

Anyone else want to share/vent about the little things? Or whatever you fucking feel like actually.

I had to fill in a form from the local Council last week and it asked gender not sex. I was so cross I wrote to them to complain. Pointed out if they are going to keep a database if residents then they need to find out the sex of hose people and not their gender as that could change depending what day of the blinking week it is

I've been looking into this, and it really is insidious. Research agencies are bound by the code of conduct laid out by the governing body, the Market Research Society. Their guidance was written off the back of government guidelines which were informed by TELI, Whittle et al. Have a quick Google the market research society sex and gender guidance, and all will become clear (can't link because it's a pdf)

The trouble is, since "TWAW", TW are going to tick Female even when they are asked what sex they are instead of gender. It's truly going to distory statistics, especially regarding crime, medicine etc.

My employer records “gender” on our HR system. They’re puzzling over why the ‘information refused’ category is rising. One of my colleagues suggested brightly its because so many young people now feel comfortable identifying as trans and non-binary, so don’t feel they fit the male/female binary option. Based on the forthright sector I work in and the age profile of our workforce, I suspect it is more likely that the refusals are people who have no truck with “gender.” I keep meaning to ask whether collecting gender instead of sex is even GDPR compliant, given that the protected characteristcs are sex and gender reassignment. I thought you were only supposed to collect and hold personal data where there is a legitimate business need. If gender isn’t a legally recognised protected characteristic, are they in breach of GDPR by collecting and storing personal data in this this way?