According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, citizens refusing to answer questions in the 2016 census (scheduled for 9 August) related to privacy concerns over retention of their personal data may face fines. The Bureau was going to retain name and address information to create a relevant statistical picture of Australia.

However, privacy and civil rights groups criticized these plans, as they allegedly constitute a serious invasion of privacy and put personal information of people at risk. The retention of such information provides an enormous amount of personal data.

Apparently, the Australian Bureau of Statistics failed to explain the changes, so the rights groups called on it to reverse the decision on the way the personal information will now be stored. As a result, there are concerns about the potential boycott of the census on privacy grounds.

In the meantime, the lawyers point out that failing or refusing to answer a question in the census can be a punishable offence if a person receives a direction to complete a form. The maximum penalty is a $180 fine per question, but the refusal to answer several questions in the form could significantly increase the fine. The Australian Bureau of Statistics admitted that for the 2011 census, there were about 1,300 notices of direction issued and 78 prosecution actions approved.

The civil rights and privacy groups also pointed out that there are concerns over how securely that information would be stored and whether it could be provided to third parties. The problem is that the government could make regulations in the future to allow information from the census to be disclosed to someone else, even despite the law preventing the disclosure of information if it can enable identification of a person.

Other media reports reveal that the proposal originally was to collect the names and addresses for an indefinite period, but the Australian statistician recently explained that he was going to permanently destroy the name and address information by 2020. According to the official, the names and addresses would be removed from other personal household data and stored in a separate database in order to ensure an additional protection.