What’s going on behind #CensusFail?

Once every five years, the government asks you to fill out the census with all your personal details so it can get a snapshot of what Australia is really like.

This year's census is being held next Tuesday 9 August. Everyone in Australia on that night will be required to go online, or use a pre-ordered paper form, and fill in their personal information.

But people are completely losing it about this year's census, with an online movement springing up in the last few months called #CensusFail.

Now, there are some very good reasons for the concern. Let's start at the top:

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In the past, the ABS would take all the data (gender, religion, education etc) and junk the names and addresses within 18 months.

The ABS now wants to keep them. The names and the addresses will be split and given a randomised identification figure (called a "statistical linkage key"), which will be kept apart from the rest of the data.

But a former statistician for the ABS, Bill McLennan, sounded the alarm on the name and address retention, writing "this, without doubt, is the most significant invasion of privacy ever perpetrated on Australians by the ABS".

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