CLA closely scrutinizes government action which infringes the general right to be left alone. If this right is to be infringed, and the Government demand we hand over personal information, we expect the benefits to outweigh the cost and inconvenience. We also expect our private information to be kept just that: private. Sadly businesses and governments often just collect information for its own sake, and then fail to protect it. They treat it as a commodity to be sold or traded. How does the Census stand up?
In recent weeks, we have been approached by members of the community and media outlets, interested in CLA’s position on the Census – a government mandated, legally enforced collection of personal, household and business information. We have looked at the law that gives the government the power to demand answers and the safeguards it imposes. In the case of the Census, the Census and Statistics Act 1905 sets out stringent legal safeguards (including criminal provisions) protecting disclosure by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) of the information you give them. They are even prohibited (under pain of 2 years in gaol or a fine of almost $14,000) from giving your information to other government departments. The forms you fill out (if you go with the paper Census) are pulped once the data is entered and your name is not linked with your answers. If you complete the Census online your ‘e-paper’ is deleted and the ABS hard drives securely erased under the supervision of an independent party.
And for the brief hassle of filling in forms you provide information which helps determine how many members or parliament your state or territory gets, or how much of your GST is given back to help build roads or fund schools.
Despite the in-your-face nature of the Census, it is probably the most honest and limited collection of information by the government. You know who holds your information, you know why it is being collected and you are guaranteed that the information will be de-identified and not shared with anyone else. Can you say the same about your bank? your video-store membership? your Woolies frequent shopper card?
If we have one complaint about the Census (and the ABS, and our governments in general) it is that is has too much faith in itself. Wikileaks, the ‘LulSec’ and ‘Anonymous’ hacking activities – not to mention the suspected cyber espionage activities of foreign powers – show that information is often not protected well enough. When it is stolen, companies and the government must tell us, be held to account, and then improve its systems. The Government needs to follow the advice of the Australian Law Reform Commission and introduce a mandatory data breach law to force companies and government departments to warn us when it fails to protect our information from theft (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/alrc/publications/reports/108/51.html#Heading268