Responses from individual households are combined with answers from other households in the area. Only aggregate data are published. No one, except Census Bureau employees, can see your questionnaire or link your response with your name. The law provides severe penalties for Census employees if they make any individual answers known. The law also prohibits other Federal, State or local agencies from gaining access to individual census records. However, information from individual records is made available 72 years after a census is conducted for historical and genealogical purposes, when individual privacy is no longer an issue.