The legal authority for information collection is Title 13, United States Code, Section 141. The collection of financial information from mortgage lenders is authorized under section 1113(d) of the Right to Financial Privacy Act (Title 12 U.S.C. 3413(d)).

Title 13 also directs the Census Bureau to publish no data that could reveal the identity or activities of any individual or organization. We use the questionnaires solely for developing summary statistics, and they cannot be used by any other government or private agency for any purpose. The law also protects from disclosure any photocopies of the census questionnaires that are retained in records.