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Australian Bureau of Statistics |  |
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2006 Census: Privacy and Confidentiality |
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Confidentiality of information you provide CONFIDENTIALITY - THE GUARANTEE OF THE ACT All personal information collected in the 2006 Census will be kept confidential. The Census and Statistics Act (1905) guarantees this protection and legally binds all ABS staff (including temporary employees working during the Census) never to release personal information to any individual or organisation outside the ABS. Section 19 of the Act makes it an offence for any past or present ABS officer to divulge, either directly or indirectly, any confidential information collected under this Act. The Act provides heavy penalties (fines of up to $13,200 or imprisonment for 2 years or both) for anybody convicted of breaching this obligation - even if they are no longer employed by the ABS. SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS Completed Census forms will be transferred from collection centres to the Census Data Processing Centre under secure arrangements. Security personnel will be employed to prevent any unauthorised access to the processing centre. Comprehensive security arrangements are implemented on the ABS computer system. These include use of regularly changed passwords, access control and audit trails. In accordance with the The Census and Statistics Act (1905) no results will be released in a way which would enable particular individuals or households to be identified. KEEPING YOUR RESPONSES CONFIDENTIAL The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) also protects householders' privacy during collection of the Census forms. Householders who do not wish other members of the household to see their information may request a personal Census form. Those who are concerned about the Census Collector seeing their form can ask for a privacy envelope or can complete the Census form on-line using the eCensus(link) Householders who still have concerns can ask their Census Collector for a reply-paid "mailback" envelope to post their completed form directly to the ABS. HOW DOES THE ABS ENSURE MY PRIVACY? The ABS has an excellent record of maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of the information provided to it over 100 years of operations. All Census forms (including names and addresses) are pulped and recycled under strict supervision following processing. ABS will only pass personally identified information to the National Archives of Australia for secure storage for 99 years for those people who have expressly consented for ABS to do so as part of the Census Time Capsule. IS MY INFORMATION GOING TO BE PROVIDED TO OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, SUCH AS CENTRELINK, TAX OFFICE, ETC.? No! The ABS is legally bound to protect the privacy of individuals and cannot give identifiable information to any third party. Organisations outside the ABS will not be given data about an individual person or individual household. The confidentiality of your data is protected by the Census and Statistics Act (1905) and the Privacy Act (1988). Both these Acts ensure that data is not provided to anyone where that data can be used to identify an individual. All ABS staff, including temporary employees are legally bound never to release personal information outside the ABS. There is absolutely no policy in existence or under consideration to integrate the Census or eCensus with the Department of Human Services Access Card (i.e. Smartcard). The ABS would never consider integrating the eCensus with any other system. Personal privacy is paramount at the ABS. People can be confident that the ABS will keep their personal information secure - both that provided in paper Census forms and in the eCensus. The ABS has never and will never release such information to any outside organisation, agency or project. By law, organisations such as the Tax Office and credit reference groups cannot have access to personal details from the Census. FORMS ARE DESTROYED ABS destroys Census forms after statistical processing has been completed. Paper is pulped and recycled. HOW SECURE IS THE eCENSUS? The eCensus is the electronic option for returning your Census form, which allows you to complete the Census via the Internet. To ensure that your information is delivered to the ABS free of tampering, we have used the strongest encryption technology that current browsers will support. eCensus data sent to the ABS via the Internet is not able to be read by anyone other than the ABS. At the end of the Census, the hard disk drives used to store information will be thoroughly wiped under the supervision of the ABS to ensure there is no possibility of any Census data being accessed by any unauthorised person. Before using eCensus it is important to consider the security of your own PC. Click on this link for information on protecting your PC. |
