The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has denied recent media reports claiming it has been using people’s mobile phones to track their locations.
“The ABS has not tracked or conducted surveillance on any Australian,” the ABS said in a formal statement.
“The ABS received aggregate-level telecommunications data from a telecommunications company to inform estimates of temporary populations.”
It said no individual information was provided.
The ABS said only aggregated counts of mobile telephone transactions were supplied in broad geographical areas.
“The information was supplied to the ABS under the authority of the Census and Statistics Act 1905,” it said.
“The ABS is bound by the secrecy requirements of this Act and is also subject to the Privacy Act 1988.”
It said it conducted a pilot study in the ACT and surrounding areas in 2016 to develop temporary population estimates as part of continuing efforts to use existing available data, rather than obtaining it directly from the population.
“This is accepted, common practice in many overseas countries.”
“Many of the people who use the services and infrastructure in Canberra do not reside in the ACT, yet Commonwealth funding is allocated to States and Territories based on its usual resident population, not its service population,” it said.
“Obtaining better information on daytime/night-time and weekday/weekend population numbers would give policymakers a greater understanding of these service populations to better inform population-based funding decisions.”
The ABS said that while it had publicly presented the findings of the pilot study it would also soon release a detailed information paper about the project on its website.
