Privacy

Protecting your privacy and keeping your information secure is our highest priority. It’s a key part of how we design the Census.

We take our duty to protect your personal information very seriously. You can read more about privacy at the ABS, or check out the Census Test Collection Notice, or the disclaimer, security and copyright pages.   

Legally we must keep Census information secure and not release information in a way that will identify any individual or household. 

We have a range of processes and protections that make sure information on Census forms stays confidential. We use the leading encryption technology available to make sure information from the online Census form is secure. If you use a paper form, we give you a Reply Paid envelope to return the form.

Any member of a household (including a visitor) can complete the Census Test separately for privacy reasons.

Information on Census forms is protected by the secrecy provisions of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 (the Act). This means that all of our staff legally have to protect this information. Staff working on all stages of the Census are covered by these laws. 

Under the Act, it’s against the law for any past or present staff member to share, in any way, information collected under the Act.

All data collected in the Census Test is used by the ABS for testing and evaluation purposes only. The data collected in the Census Test will not be released or shared with any other organisation. 

We handle your personal information with utmost care to meet our legislative requirements and public expectations.

We adhere to the Privacy Act 1988 and to the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), which govern how we collect and use personal information.

Our privacy policies set out the personal information handling practices of the ABS. 

We’re also bound by the secrecy requirements of the Census and Statistics Act 1905, which ensures that information collected for a statistical purpose cannot be released in a manner that's likely to enable the identification of any individual or household.