The Australian Bureau of Statistics has admitted it could have communicated with the public better about its decision to retain names and addresses from census forms for much longer than in past years.

The ABS waited until the week before Christmas to quietly announce it would retain names and addresses in separate files along with the census data in order to “provide a richer and dynamic statistical picture of Australia”. Crikey first reported the issue in January, and controversy over the proposal grew over May, June and July this year, with the ABS dismissing concerns about the privacy implications of retaining every Australian resident’s personal data for years, and boasting it had spent a lot of time discussing the issue publicly before making the decision in late 2015.

[The